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Interview with Chris Dolley of the Book View Café (February 2010)

Book View Café is a cooperative site created by a group of writers – including internationally renowned authors Katharine Kerr, Ursula Le Guin and Vonda N. McIntyre – who want to take advantage of the internet’s possibilities for reaching a wider audience and to distribute their work directly to their readers. The Book View Café is a place where you can find free, original fiction plus the authors’ best and out-of-print work for a fee. Fantasy Book Review spoke to Book View Cafe member, science fiction author and memoirist Chris Dolley in February 2010.

Authors are using Book View Café to take advantage of the internet’s possibilities for reaching a wider audience and to distribute their work directly to their readers. eBooks are arguably the best example of this but what other ways are there in which can you achieve your objectives?

We’re still discovering new ways. We serialise our work online for free at www.bookviewcafe.com, posting one chapter per week. Every day there’s at least one new chapter from someone. Plus we post complete short stories, novellas and screenplays.

Then there’s our blog at http://blog.bookviewcafe.com/ where we talk about writing, books, life and anything that takes our fancy. We also have a monthly newsletter stuffed full of news, interviews and fun pictures.

What else? Oh yes, there’s twitter where we hold the occasional contest offering books for prizes. And this week we’ve been experimenting with a chat lounge hour where anyone can drop in and have a chat.

Lastly, and most importantly, we listen to our readers. We’re all authors and at the beginning we knew very little about eReaders and eBook formats so we canvassed widely, read widely and listened. Readers didn’t want DRM so none of our books have it. They wanted a choice of eBook formats so that’s what we produce. We listened to them over price too. The average price of our novels is $4.99. And we often run promotional weekends when we’ll drop the price of a books to $2.99.

The Google Book Settlement has recently been causing great concern and debate. Is The Book View Café a way in which an author can retain control over the digital rights to their work?

Book View Cafe has been in the forefront of the debate thanks to Ursula K. Le Guin’s much publicised campaign against the Google Book Settlement.

As for Book View Cafe helping authors retain control over digital rights, that’s more of an agent’s job, but BVC can certainly help indirectly by making members more aware of electronic rights and who owns them. Some of our older books were written before electronic rights were mentioned in book contracts and a few publishers have attempted to retrospectively add them.

The start of 2010 saw The Book View Café team up with Smashwords with the aim of growing its eBook catalogue. Are you beginning to see results from this partnership?

Well last time I checked we were the most viewed publisher on Smashwords. And we are selling a fair number of books there but Smashwords is more than an online bookstore it’s also a distributor to places like Barnes & Noble, Amazon and Sony.  So it’s a handy way for us, as publishers, to gain access to those markets.

Are you surprised at how quickly the eBook has been embraced when many believed that nothing could ever replace the feel of a hardback or paperback in one’s hand?

Ebooks have been around for years. The difference now is that they’re being taken seriously. EReaders are no longer niche gadgets but mainstream products. Why the sudden change? It’s a combination of technology coming up with improved screens – E Ink, larger, brighter back-lit displays etc – so you can read a book for an hour or more without developing eyestrain or a headache. And large corporations (Amazon and Apple) moving into the eReader business in a big way. Amazon have been discounting eBooks for their Kindle to push Kindle hardware sales for some time. Now Apple’s launching their much-hyped iPad.

Will this mark the death of the paper book? Definitely not. But it will provide an alternative. And, over the next decade, I think they will begin to diverge. At the moment eBooks are digital versions of paper books. But they have the ability to be so much more. By adding hyperlinks to text you can give the reader the ability to navigate outside the book or to particular pages within the book. One example I can see for Fantasy books is to have the ability to access and zoom in on a large scale map whenever you want to or click on a character’s name and have a pop up reminder of who they are. I tend to read in bed so it can take quite a long time to read one of those fat fantasies with a cast list of hundreds and I often come across a character name I can’t remember. But if I could click on the person’s name – instant memory refresh. And very simple to do. Many books already include a cast list.

Video is another extra that will be added to eBooks soon. Instead of having a map at the beginning of a book there could be a video sequence or an interactive 3D map so the reader could fly over the landscape of the map, walk the town streets, circumnavigate the tower and peer into the caves. The technology to do this already exists. All it takes is a little imagination.

Over recent years the path to publication has become rather easier than it once was with self-publishing a now very popular pastime/hobby. Do you think that this has been a good or bad thing for the literature world?

I think the jury’s still out. If self-publishing had been as cheap and easy to do in 1994 as it is today then I would have self-published my first novel, Shift. And it would have been a terrible mistake. Why? Because I wasn’t ready. It takes years to learn a craft and the writer is the worst person to judge when they’re ready. No one sets out to write a bad book. Everyone aims to write the best book they can and – at the time it’s written, it is the best book the author could have written. But 2, 3, 10 years later it could have been so much better. The version of Shift that Baen released in 2007 was far superior to the 1994 version.

So how do you know when your book is ready? The traditional way has been to let the publishers decide. It’s never been perfect but if an author has talent and perseverance they usually succeed. Over the past twenty years or so the publisher model has started to crack. Book retailers have become more like supermarkets, concentrating on the books that sell well and offering them at lower and lower prices. Publishers have reacted to this by taking fewer risks, dropping authors quicker than they used to and concentrating their marketing effort on their top authors.

Which is when having a cheap and easy alternative to the publisher gatekeeper model becomes advantageous. There are books and authors that publishers overlook or deem uncommercial. The problem the reader has is finding these gems from the large amount of unpolished gravel.

At Book View Cafe we have a membership rule – to join the co-operative you have to have at least one novel published by a major print publisher.

What would be the effect on the Book View Café if JK Rowling and Dan Brown came on board at the same time?

We’d have a party. And then we might have to get a new server or two. But otherwise no problem. Do you want to start a rumour?

Will this be a great opportunity for authors to get out-of-print works available once again?

This is one of the biggest bonuses. Books go out of print so quickly these days as it’s not in the publisher’s financial interest to keep a long tail in print. The big chains want books that fly off the shelves and soon return the ones that don’t.

So, releasing the books again via Book View Cafe makes eminent sense. 

What has been Book View Café’s most downloaded title?

That would be The Shadow Conspiracy, an original steampunk anthology of short stories written by various BVC authors set in a shared alternate earth, a place powered by steam and magic. A world of dreamers, experimenters and engineers, soulless humans and ensouled machines born of most unlikely parents: four poets who gathered one cold summer on the shores of Lake Geneva in 1816. Byron, Shelley, Mary Shelley and Dr. Polidori.

The stories explore the unfolding consequences of that gathering — and how it changed everything we thought we knew about science and ourselves.

It can be downloaded here (http://www.bookviewcafe.com/BVC-eBookstore/) for $9.99.

Do you have a newsletter that can be subscribed to so that people can keep updated on news and events?

We do. All you have to do is go to www.bookviewcafe and register your username, password and email address. The newsletter is sent out every month.

Posted: February 23rd, 2010
Author: Lee
Categories: Interviews

Alex Bell interview (February 2010)

Alex Bell was born in 1986 in Hampshire. She studied Law on and off for six long years before the boredom became so overwhelming that she had to throw down the textbooks and run madly from the building. Since then she has never looked back. She has travelled widely, is a ferociously strict vegetarian and generally prefers cats to people. Lex Trent Versus the Gods is the first fantasy book that she has written for young adults.

Read our full review of Lex Trent Versus the Gods

Do you class lying, cheating and swindling as some of your finer points or are you the complete opposite to Lex, a goody-two-shoes?

You wouldn’t believe how much of a goody-two-shoes I am! It’s enough to make you sick! I never even got a detention at school, although I did steal something by accident once, if that counts.

The age-old advice given to authors is to write about what they know. By making Lex a lawyer-in-training, a job role you can identify with from personal experience, were you able to place a greater feeling of authenticity upon his character?

I suppose having been a law student I was able to tap into my own experiences when writing about Lex’s legal background, but I’m not sure I completely agree with the adage that you should write about what you know. I think that would be too boring. I don’t have any personal experience with flying ships or enchanters or moody Gods, but I wrote about them in Lex nevertheless. The whole fantasy/sci-fi genre is based on writing about what you don’t know.

What emotions would you hope your young adult readership experiences while reading Lex Trent Versus the Gods?

I would hope younger readers and, indeed, older readers, would enjoy Lex as a piece of light-hearted escapism that takes them to a world that is a hell of a lot more exciting than this one.

Are the tragic-ending and the anti-hero more to your taste than the Hollywood ending and the clean-cut hero?

The anti-hero is most definitely more to my taste – the Flashman series of books is one of my very favourites. But I’m a sucker for a happy ending.

The soulless wake, an illness that afflicts two characters in the book, will remind many readers of Alzheimer’s disease. Is this intentional and is there a reason why you made it so central to the story?

The soulless wake is, to all intents and purposes, Alzheimer’s. I started writing Lex Trent when I was nineteen, two years after my grandfather had been diagnosed with the illness. This aspect crept into the book without my really meaning it too – I suppose because it was something that was on my mind at the time. I see in your review you wonder whether Terry Pratchett’s diagnosis had anything to do with it but this wasn’t the case as Terry Pratchett hadn’t even been diagnosed at that point.

If a major movie adaptation of Lex Trent Versus the Gods was proposed and you were allowed to select actors from past and present to play roles, who would you choose to play Lex, Schmidt and Lady Luck?

Well, they’re not actors, but something about Jedward reminds me irresistibly of Lex! Apart from the hair, it’s almost uncanny how much they look like the Lex I see in my head. Add to that the fact that Lex is also an identical twin – well, it’s just a match made in Heaven!

As for Schmidt, having seen Charles Dance play a solicitor in the BBC production of Bleak House I think he’d be great in the role.

I’m not sure about Lady Luck, but obviously she would have to be a beautiful, ditzy looking blonde.

Is this the end of the road for Lex or will we be hearing from him again soon?

You will certainly be hearing from Lex again soon! He will be back for another Game involving even more dangerous rounds with much tougher competition! And he will meet his match in his new companion – who will be extremely different from Mr Schmidt – and who only takes orders from Lex when it suits him to.

What fantasy books did you read as teenager?

The Discworld and Harry Potter books were my favourite fantasy books but I read lots of other stuff outside the genre too.

Alex Bell biography

The official Alex Bell website

Posted: February 16th, 2010
Author: Lee
Categories: Interviews

Alison Goodman interview (January 2010)

Alison Goodman was born in Melbourne and, after a bit of wandering, recently returned to live there. She was a D.J. O’Hearn Memorial Fellow at Melbourne University, holds a Masters degree and teaches creative writing at postgraduate level. Her debut novel was the award-winning futuristic thriller Singing the Dogstar Blues. EON: Rise of the Dragoneye was inspired by an aunt’s Japanese heritage and an early love for Sci-Fi and Cyperpunk, developing an idea she had whilst researching Feng Shui during the writing of an earlier novel. It has been published as The Two Pearls of Wisdom for an adult readership in the UK. Alison kindly spoke to Fantasy Book Review in January 2010.

EON: Rise of the Dragoneye is ideal for younger readers but can also be read and enjoyed by adults of all ages. What do you think it is that makes your book, and others such as J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series and Ursula Le Guin’s Earthsea Cycle, so appealing to all, regardless of age?

The quick answer is that they are fun and exciting, and usually written as an adventure story. But on a deeper level, I think they appeal to all ages because they touch on the common desire to be special or to have a destiny that is important to the world. In a fantasy novel, there is more often than not a hero or heroine who is “the chosen one”, someone with special gifts and a special fate, and the reader is invited to identify with this character. Another attractive aspect of these books is that the goal of the main character is usually very clear, and a quest of some kind, which taps into the human desire to search for meaning and to create order out of chaos.

Did you ever think that you were taking a risk in making your leading character female, considering that the fantasy genre has historically leaned heavily towards the male hero?

No, not at all. I sold the book to my Australian publisher via a one sentence verbal pitch, so it was never a risky proposition in terms of getting a publisher interested. It was also sold into the USA on the strength of a few chapters, and subsequently snapped up by eleven other countries, which pretty much pointed to the appeal of a female lead character. Nor have I ever felt that a female lead in any way weakens the appeal of a story. In fact, with EON: Rise of the Dragoneye it is probably the opposite – the story works because Eon is female.

What are the major differences between The Two Pearls of Wisdom and EON: Rise of the Dragoneye?

They are the same book, so the only difference is the cover. I specifically wrote EON: Rise of the Dragoneye as a cross-over novel, that is, one that would appeal to both adult and young adult audiences, so no changes were required when the different editions were created.

Does an author’s country of origin make any difference in regards to getting a book published and marketed? Would your path have been any harder/easier had you been American or British, rather than Australian?

It is difficult to get published whatever nationality you are. Whenever I chat to other authors about their pathways to publication, they are all so different and idiosyncratic that it is hard to come to any idea of what common factors play a part, including nationality. No doubt being an Australian author helped me come to the notice of Australian publishers at the beginning of my career, but I don’t think it played a major role in being picked up by overseas publishers. In the end, it is the work that is your passport.

You teach creative writing at postgraduate level. In your experience, have you found writing talent to be inherent or something that can be learned?

A good question, and one that is still being slugged out in the professional journals and papers. Personally, I think there are people who have a natural ability with language. I also think that these people can be taught the craft of writing to support and develop that ability. What can’t be taught is the art of writing – that leap into creating something new that puts forward a unique and truthful vision of the human experience. It can be encouraged, but it can’t be taught.

Is it true that EON was inspired by an aunt’s Japanese heritage and based on ancient Chinese myths and traditions?

Yes, that is true. My late aunt was Japanese and her influence prompted a life-long interest in Asian cultures. I also researched a lot of Chinese myth and traditions and used them as a springboard for the creation of the world in EON: Rise of the Dragoneye.

Your book shows signs of extensive research. Were there any books that proved invaluable during the writing of Eon?

Quite a few. Perhaps the most influential was a fascinating book about Chinese eunuchs by Taisuke Mitamura which also covered interesting aspects of Chinese court life. I also used a number of Lillian Too’s excellent books about Feng Shui and an interesting book about the The Forbidden City, which also had a number of great photos that helped me create the Palace in my novel. If readers are interested, I have detailed the books I used for research on my website.

Will there be a sequel to EON: Rise of the Dragoneye?

Absolutely. It is titled EONA and is the concluding sequel.

Are there any fantasy books that you remember fondly from your own childhood?

Too many to list them all here, but a few include Tea with the Black Dragon by R.A. MacAvoy, Jhereg by Steven Brust, the Dragons of Pern books by Anne McCaffrey, and when I was very little, The Magic Faraway Tree by Enid Blyton.

The Two Pearls of Wisdom book review
Alison Goodman biography

Posted: January 19th, 2010
Author: Lee
Categories: Alison Goodman, Interviews

Robert Shearman interview (January 2010)

Robert Shearman has worked as a writer for television, radio and the stage. He is probably best known as a writer for Doctor Who, reintroducing the Daleks for its BAFTA winning first series, in an episode nominated for a Hugo Award. His first collection of short stories, Tiny Deaths, was published in 2007. It won the World Fantasy Award for best collection, was shortlisted for the Edge Hill Short Story Prize and nominated for the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Prize. December 2009 saw the publication of love songs for the shy and cynical, a collection of short stories putting a bizarre twist on the love story. Rob kindly spoke to Fantasy Book Review in January 2010.

I will happily admit that I found love songs for the shy and cynical to be a brilliant collection of bittersweet love stories. Has the book’s reception been similarly positive elsewhere?

Oh, thank you! That’s very kind. Gauging reactions to things you’ve written is always very hard. On the one hand, it’s actually hard to picture anyone sitting down and *reading* your words – because the very idea anyone is going to want to do that is enough to make you so self-conscious you don’t want to start in the first place! And on the other, by the time the stories reach an audience they usually feel so old that you can’t but help be a little disengaged from them. I’m actually very proud of Love Songs, but I’m necessarily more involved with the stories I’ve got in my head *right now*, so I look on the book with the sort of indulgent affection an uncle might have for a nephew who doesn’t annoy him very much.

As a result, it’s a bit hard to steel yourself for the critics, because you don’t quite know how you feel about the book either any more! So far it’s going down very well, I think – the reviews have been very enthusiastic so far (being a small press, they are always pretty sporadic for the first few months), and we’ve already won a couple of awards. Which is rather delightful. The inner uncle in me is smiling down at the nephew most fondly at the moment.

Have you found that publishing companies have difficulty marketing of a collection of short stories, as compared to a novel?

Short stories do have something of an awkward reputation. They’re either seen as an opportunity for writers to indulge in something like prose poetry – to be more concerned with style and form than with story – or as simply things that are very brief because the writer in question hasn’t got the bottle to come up with something longer! But I *love* short stories, precisely because their comparative brevity allows you to be somehow more epic than longer stories allow – in a novel, sooner or later, the pace has to settle down into something that seems to perform in ‘real time’, at a speed which mirrors the readers’ lives, but in short stories you can surprise the reader by doing genuinely colossal things, life-overturning stuff – and then suddenly narrow in on to the smallest and most intimate moment imaginable.

They’re more of a challenge, perhaps, simply because the rules by which short stories are told are so much more vague. And I dare say that does make them a harder sell. But I think there’s nothing quite as beautiful as a really good short story. I’m still working hard at producing one I can, hand on heart, say makes the form work. But I’m having fun getting closer!

Roadkill, the tale of a woman embarking on an ill-fated affair, was the standout story for me but I cannot claim to understand the significance of the winged rabbits. Was I missing something obvious?

Oh, no, I don’t think so. It’s as I’ve just said, really – the short story form allows an ambiguity that you don’t get elsewhere. I just wanted to write out this sad and fumbling relationship between two people who’d had the most awkward attempt at an affair possible. And out of this thudding ordinary ugliness, comes suddenly something crashing into their world that is a little surreal, a little magical. And can only remind the woman quite forcefully of the very reason she’s looking for an affair in the first place, and the very reason it’d never work out. The rabbit made it ordinary – the wings just gave the little hope of something more beautiful wanting to fly away. But really, I want the reader to take that peculiar little metaphor and make of it what they will. Or can!

In one of your short stories, 14.2, it was possible to have your future wife tested and so find out how much she really loves you (in this case it was 14.2%, hence the title). Do you think people would go for this option if it were a possibility? Would you?

Oh, that’s a nasty little story. Precisely because the test only works on women, and that it’s so painful. Would men do it if they could? Absolutely. Would I? God, I hope not. But I probably would. We’re all so obsessed with love – what people think about us, whether they like us or not, whether we could be of any importance to them. Tell someone that a person they’d hitherto never even given a second glance loves me, and watch as their interest is aroused. We so desperately want to be loved, even if others already do so, even if we were happy as we are. If I had X-ray vision, and could see inside women’s heads, and see whether they fancied me or not – oh, I’d be doing nothing *but* having a good peek.

There are two stories regarding father/son relationships. The first one features a dad who is a fanatical cricket fan and a son who desperately tries to please him. The second is where you and your father attend an awards ceremony together. Are these based on your own real life experiences?

Most of the stories have an element of autobiography to them, even the most fantastical of them! The danger is that when you write the more ‘realistic’ stories, people might assume they’re based on truth more than the others. It’s true that my father loves cricket, and I know he’d have loved to have shared that passion with me – but the relationship between the two is something I’ve warped well away from my own childhood. And I did indeed go to an award ceremony for Tiny Deaths, upon which one story was based – but I hope to God I behaved better than my narrator did! (In real life, I also lost. But the wine was nice.)

Do you feel that love songs for the shy and cynical is an improvement upon Tiny Deaths? Did you notice any strengths or weaknesses in your first collection that you either utilised or remedied in the second?

Actually, it was at that very award ceremony for Tiny Deaths that a judge told me that her one real criticism of the book was that the narrative voices all felt very similar. The stories ranged in theme a lot, but not necessarily in tone. I’m not sure I agree, but it spurred me on to try to make Love Songs a bit more *surprising*, I suppose. But I’m very fond of both books. I do prefer Love Songs. But then I ought to, really – it’s more recent! It’d be awful to be sitting here lamenting the thought that the longer I bash away at these short stories, the worse I get…!

Was the writing of love songs for the shy and cynical a cathartic experience?

I don’t know. It was hugely enjoyable. I do love writing short stories. When you’re involved in television, for example, the process of getting a script to screen can take *ages*. (Sometimes it feels, quite literally.) So after years of writing nothing but Bigger Projects for stage and screen, I found the short story form enormously liberating. Just for knowing that when I start a project, the odds are I’ll have a completed workable draft of it within a couple of days or so. For example, I’m just about to start a new short story – I’ve been ferreting it away to the back of my brain all over Christmas – and I can’t *wait*, I know that by mid-January at the latest it’ll be sitting here, pristine and shiny, on this here computer. The catharsis of writing short stories is in the joy of doing them usually, rather than in anything the stories themselves might be doing individually. Some stories are more personal than others. But I don’t usually let people know which.

We believe you soon will be, or already are, working on your first novel. Will this be a completely different writing process for you and can you give us any clues about what it will be about?

It’s about Walt Disney, and the way that American culture has dominated the world over the last century. But with lots of jokes, and a lot of very odd storylines, and a few poignant love stories too. It’s quite frightening, working on it, because it does feel something like a mountain – but the way it’s structured is as a series of different interconnected narratives in different contrasting tones. So it still feels to my brain a little like short story writing, but with a greater concern for the book’s whole. Love Songs was at one point edging close to being novel-ish, so that all the stories within built into one connected theme. In the end, I backtracked on that, and thought it was a bit pretentious, and made the individual stories less likely to be moving. But I’m giving it a proper go here!

There is a great story about a youngster writing a song that is good enough to enter the list of the top one thousand love songs of all time. If you had to name three songs that you personally believe should be in the top ten of that list, what would they be?

Ha! Well, I do remember one little ditty by Verdi being knocked into second place. That’d be the opening few minutes of Otello, probably, which is as dramatic and passionate a song as anything ever composed. Whether it’s technically a *love* song is another matter! I do love opera, so I’d also go for the football fan’s favourite, and pick ‘Nessun Dorma’ from Puccini’s Turandot too. But I adore modern music, and have recently fallen head over heels in love with Regina Spektor. Her song ‘On the Radio’ is one of the most extraordinary depictions of love, and why we keep trying at it, that I’ve ever heard. …Hey, after prolonged exposure recently on my iPod, I’ve come to believe that Baccara’s 70s hit ‘Yes, Sir, I Can Boogie’ is one of the most beautiful ballads ever composed. It honestly makes me cry. So let’s face it – I may not be the best judge!

Robert Shearman is now at work on a third collection of short stories and his first novel. For more information visit http://robshearman.livejournal.com/

Robert Shearman: Actually, although it’s not up and running properly yet, www.robertshearman.net is probably the more useful link. Or suggest the ‘Love Songs for the Shy and Cynical’ group on Facebook!

Many thanks, I enjoyed that!

love songs for the shy and cynical book review (9.5/10 – Book of the Month, December 2009)
Robert Shearman biography

Posted: January 5th, 2010
Author: Lee
Categories: Interviews

The 2 Steves: Steve Skidmore and Steve Barlow interview (November 2009)

Authors Steve Barlow and Steve Skidmore have always been experts in reaching out to children through their witty and accessible books, so it comes as no surprise that they are once more at the forefront of new developments in reading and literacy. With the anarchic Vernon Bright titles leading the way the Steves have launched their first range of revolutionary eBooks. Steve Skidmore and Steve Barlow kindly spoke to Fantasy Book Review in November 2009.

In September the Vernon Bright titles became available as eBooks, a format that can be viewed on both the iPhone and the iPod Touch. Has there been an encouraging response to this move?

We’ve been showing kids all our titles, including Vernon Bright, on the I Phone/I Pod Touch during our school visits, and they love the idea of reading on these devices – for the disaffected readers they’re not reading a book, they’re using an app (there’s a world of difference!) and everyone enjoys the rolling text on Star Bores and the quizzes.

On a scale of 0-10, how concerned are you over the standard of children’s reading and literacy in the UK today (with 0 being not at all concerned)? Also, do you believe that there has been an improvement over the last two decades or have you seen worrying signs of decline?

About a 5 or 6. We’re not desperately concerned because there are still a lot of committed readers out there – but with so many different forms of entertainment competing for kids’ attention, there’s clearly a danger that reading could lose out. This isn’t helped by the fact that publishers and booksellers are currently obsessed with publishing books ‘written’ by celebrities (many of which DON’T do what it says on the tin). If we look at reading in the widest possible sense (ie reading on screen, reading text messages etc) we don’t see a decline, but we have to be aware that for kids the world is changing and the book business has to change with it.

How important is it that a parent reads to their children and what advantages will a child who is read to have over those who are less fortunate?

It’s absolutely vital, especially that dads do their fair share. Boys need male role models and for most, literacy is taught and mentored by females (nursery, infant and primary school teachers, librarians) which unfortunately gives some the impression that reading is a girls’ thing. Blokes need to get more involved. Reading is vital to everyone. This is why we’ve always argued for literacy to be delivered right across the curriculum, in secondary schools as well as primary. There’s no point in being the world’s greatest practical scientist if you can’t read your colleagues’ work or accurately record your results.

What advise would you give to parents of struggling readers?

Don’t be panicked by government dictates into pushing your child too far too fast. Let them read what they want to read and feel comfortable reading. Encourage them to explore alternatives to books. Let them listen to stories on audiobooks. Read to them. Find out who is publishing titles that cater for those with reading difficulties (Barrington Stoke springs to mind). NEVER say, “Why are you reading that rubbish?”

Have you a case study of how reading has significantly improved a youngster’s life?

One of the problems of no longer being full time teachers is that we don’t often get to see the development in individuals who discover reading. But we do sometimes get comments from parents: “Since he met you he’s been writing stories non-stop…” “He never reads but last night he went to bed with your book and wouldn’t put his light off until he’s finished it…” “Thank you so much for the work you’ve been doing with my son. This morning he wanted to go to school for the first time…”

You are both ex-teachers. How good were you at reading stories to your pupils? Is there a future in audiobook narration awaiting either of you?

Steve Barlow mostly taught post 16 students, so didn’t get many opportunities to read stories! Steve Skidmore did a lot of work with younger pupils and has always been convinced of the power of a good story and the necessity of reading it with passion and conviction. A dry, uninvolved delivery is awful, and reading around the class with poor readers stumbling over every other word is deadly!

What experience did your time teaching in Botswana give you that teaching in the UK could never have? (Steve Barlow)

Mostly huge respect for my students who had to do their Cambridge Overseas School Certificate examinations (equivalent to GCSE) in their THIRD language (their first two being Sekalanga, the local language, and Setswana, the national language. I don’t know how they did it (I’m mortally sure I couldn’t have).

Your first book was I Fell in Love With a Leather Jacket. How does it hold up 16 years later? (Steve Skidmore)

Not very well – because most of the environmental issues of the time that it deals with have been settled. Burgers are no longer made with MRM (Mechanically Reclaimed Meat) for example and fox hunting, as we write this, is no longer legal. Other issues have come to the fore. The book is still funny, but it is outdated, and when we were looking at titles to put on the I Phone/I Pod Touch we decided not to include it. That doesn’t mean we won’t return to the subject at some time in the future – maybe with different characters.

If the government passed a bill making the use of puns illegal would you be able to avoid breaking the law?

We wouldn’t put it past them: and no, probably not. Our trial would be fun. “What’s that big grey animal with tusks doing in the dock?” “That’s irrelevant.” “You’re right, that IS a relephant…” We’re hopeless. Lock us up now.

Which author has influenced you the greatest and is there a book that you really wished you had written?

Oh, there are so many. TH White. AA Milne. Shakespeare. Terry Pratchett. Charles Dickens. We think there are some marvellous books about for kids these days. Which books do we really wish we’d written? All together now – “HARRY POTTER” – then we’d be rich. But we like the books we write, even if we don’t sell as many as JK.

What do you hope readers’ experience while reading your books?

We just hope they’re enjoying themselves – whether they’re laughing at the funny bits, tingling at the scary bits, gasping at the adventurous bits or crying at the sad bits, we hope they’re having fun.

Did you learn anything new during your collaboration with media company Sleepydog?

We’ve started to learn about the possibilities of e books being interactive as paper books can’t be (the quizzes were Sleepydog’s idea). We’re experimenting with “choose your own adventure” titles on this format, which we think will work very well as our readers won’t have the opportunity to turn back to the previous event if they’ve made a wrong choice (Ie cheat!). We’d really like to see sales taking off in a big way because we’d like the financial footing to explore even more inventive ways of having our readers interact with the texts.

What does the remainder of 2009 and 2010 hold for the 2 Steves?

A lot of writing! We’re commissioned to write two new series for Usborne and two more fighting fantasy series for Hachette. We’re got a lot of school visits lined up, too, including one to Qatar. Skidmore is going to the Hong Kong Sevens to watch the rugby and Barlow is going to Glastonbury to watch U2. After that, we’ll wait to see what turns up. Something usually does.

For more information on the 2 Steves, visit http://www.the2steves.net/.

Posted: November 28th, 2009
Author: Lee
Categories: Interviews

Lauren Kate interview (November 2009)

Lauren Kate recently finished her M.A. in Creative Writing at UC Davis, where she also teaches. She lives and writes in an old farm house in Winters, California. Her first novel, The Betrayal of Natalie Hargrove goes on sale one month before Fallen. Lauren very kindly spoke to Fantasy Book Review in November 2009.

Fallen is a supernatural fantasy book that will appeal greatly to the young-adult/teenage demographic. Did you set yourself boundaries, in regards to language and subject matter, that you felt were important to stay within to avoid upsetting/offending your readers (and possibly their parents)?

I haven’t reached a place where I needed to censor myself yet—and I don’t plan to. Maybe that’s because I wanted to keep Luce as accessible as possible (both to teens and their parents). For all the bad rap she gets, she’s basically a good kid, not really prone to much hard livin’. I think telling the story though her clean lens gives me a little leeway to pepper the story with some more risqué characters, like Arriane or even Cam.

Of course there’s still the whole issue of “the war between good and evil,” which can seem like a heavy or controversial topic. But I’m not interested in making any pronouncements about right or wrong, just in opening up a conversation, maybe challenging a few pre-conceived notions…just to be contentious.

Read the Fantasy Book Review of Fallen

Do you believe that boys/men will enjoy Fallen as much as their female counterparts?

Yes! Though maybe it will just be a decoy to attract female attention: “Look at that cute boy on the train reading that sensitive romance novel. I must go introduce myself!”

We Brits love nothing more than coming across British references while reading books by American authors. Fallen’s prologue is set in England, and then there are a couple of references, one to Albert Finney, and the other to The Smiths. Do these references reflect your own personal tastes?

Is this the part of the show where I admit to being an anglophile? Yes, okay, you’ve got me. You guys just do everything so darn smartly.

How large a part did your M.A. in Creative Writing play in the writing of Fallen? Would the book have been possible without it?

I’ve been taking writing workshops for about ten years so I think I was already comfortable with the benefits of a writers workshop. I applied to my masters program so that I could have more time to write. Before that, I was working long hours as an YA editor at HarperCollins (yet another place I indulged my anglophile tendencies—I got to work with people like Louise Rennison and Frank Cottrell Boyce). Anyway, back to the M.A. Time is really one of the most valuable things a beginning writer can have, and I really had about a year to just write, which was fabulous. In the process, I also met some wonderful writers and got to read a lot of great works. So yes, it was a good thing.

Are there any fantasy books from your own childhood/teenage years that are still special to you?

Oh, this list could go on and one! I loved all the Narnia books. And anything by Roald Dahl, Lois Lowry, Lewis Caroll. More recently, I love Meg Rosoff and Frances Hardinge. Right now I’m reading Frances’ The Lost Conspiracy—and loving it.

For more information on Lauren Kate, visit http://laurenkatebooks.net/.

Fallen book trailer

Posted: November 26th, 2009
Author: Lee
Categories: Interviews, Lauren Kate

Steve Augarde interview (October 2009)

Steve Augarde was born in Birmingham, but spent most of his life in the West Country, working as an illustrator, paper-engineer, and semi-pro jazz musician. He has written and illustrated over 80 picture-books for younger children, and has produced the paper-engineering for many pop-up books, including those by other artists – as well as providing the artwork and music for two animated BBC television series. His first book for older children, The Various, won a Silver Smarties Award in 2003.  Steve kindly spoke to Fantasy Book Review in October 2009, shortly after the release of X isle, a dystopian fantasy for young adults.

Do any of the children on X isle bear any resemblance to the young Steve Augarde?

I’ve never consciously tried to portray myself, but certain characteristics are bound to come through, I suppose. Gene’s interest in mechanics mirrors my own – as does Robbie’s instinct for avoiding trouble. But no, they’re not me.

The language that was used in X isle was arguably not a strong as it might have been in real life. This was obviously due to its being a book for older children and young adults, and this explains the use of the word ‘chuffin’ instead of the more commonly uttered profanities. Do you feel that X isle may have lost any potency because of this?

It’s very difficult to reflect modern speech and idiom without including a few cuss words. The language in X Isle was originally a lot stronger, particularly with the adult characters, but my editors felt that there would be objections from parents and teachers. I agreed, and we toned it down a notch or two. The situation was helped by the fact that Preacher John himself forbids bad language, and so the boys in the story have to learn to avoid it. Handy, that…

X isle deals with religious fanaticism, and the fear that it can induce. Was this an area in which you had to be especially careful?

Very much so. The combined elements of ‘religious fanaticism’ and ‘bomb manufacturing’ may well ring a few alarm bells, and any writer bringing such ingredients into a children’s book had better tread warily. But I’d like to go on early record as saying that X Isle is in no way a condemnation of religious belief, nor is it a handbook for would-be bombers! I’m a parent myself, and a qualified teacher. There’s no way I’d put something out onto the market that could be considered irresponsible or offensive. On the contrary, I think that X Isle has a deep sense of morality at its core, and opens up some interesting discussion points.

You are currently working on a new novel – is it a sequel to X isle?

No. A couple of reviewers have already wondered whether the ending of X Isle hints at a sequel. It’s a possibility I suppose, but I have no definite plans to revisit. My new book is an adventure story set in South Africa during the late 1930s, just before the outbreak of WW2.

As well as being an author and illustrator, you are also a paper engineer. Can you tell us more about what this intriguing sounding job involves?

Designing mechanisms for pop-up books is both art and science, I feel. What’s hidden between the pages can be just as beautiful as what appears on the surface. The possibilities are limitless, but of course cost is the prohibiting factor. Any paper-engineer worthy of the name can make wonderful things happen with bits of folded card – the trick is to do it within a stringently tight budget. Pop-up books are individually assembled by hand, every fold, every glue point, every scrap of card costing money, and so commercial viability depends upon being able to produce mechanisms that are both cheap and effective. An efficient and minimalist approach is necessary – as with any form of engineering – and it’s this challenge that I find most satisfying; maximum effect at minimum cost.

The Various was an award winner in The Nestle Smarties Book Prize 2003. Both Celandine and Winter Wood have been nominated for the Carnegie Medal. Do you feel that awards and nominations are the final seal of approval on an authors work?

Well they certainly won’t do you any harm. But the awarding of prizes by a panel of judges is inevitably a bit of a lottery, and there are endless arguments after the event as to whether the right books have been recognised and honoured. If you win you shouldn’t believe that you’re necessarily a better writer than the next guy in line, and if you lose you shouldn’t feel that you’re inferior.

You have been a children’s author for over thirty years. Are you concerned that children today are reading less and less?

Yes, but not to the point of despair. There are certainly many other distractions competing for children’s time and attention, and I do worry as to the value of some of them. But the book hasn’t been replaced, and I don’t think it ever can be. There’s still no substitute in terms of depth of entertainment – nothing even comes close. Readers know why they read.

Are there any fantasy books from your own childhood that you still hold dear?

I was never really a fantasy fan! Seems heretical to say it, when I’m regarded nowadays as being a fantasy author. To be honest, I don’t remember there being that many fantasy novels around when I was a boy. It was all Malcolm Saville and Arthur Ransome – stories about posh kids with ponies and boats. That and Greyfriars annuals. Crikey! Yaroo! I did love Marvel comics, however, when I could get ‘em. And Dan Dare from the Eagle. Readers might be interested in a piece on comics that I wrote for my blog.

What does the remainder of 2009 hold for Steve Augarde?

Head down, tail up, and on with the next miracle.

Read our review of X isle
Steve Augarde biography

Posted: October 22nd, 2009
Author: Lee
Categories: Interviews

David Whitley interview (October 2009)

David Whitley was born in 1984 and graduated from the University of Oxford with a double first in English Literature and a passion for writing children’s fiction. At age 17 his first children’s novel was shortlisted for the Kathleen Fidler Award and at 20 he won the Cheshire Prize for Literature for a children’s short story; the youngest writer ever to win this prestigious award which was presented by Michael Morpurgo. In 2005 David appeared on BBC2’s University Challenge where he was a member of the winning Corpus Christi team who beat all competitors to become Series Champions. He is also a keen actor, director and chorister. David currently lives in Cheshire and is working on his second novel.

David Whitley biography
The Midnight Charter book review

The Midnight Charter is set in the wonderfully atmospheric Agora, a city without money where everything and anyone is for sale. Where did the idea for Agora first spring from and did you draw inspiration from the history of any famous European cities?

Agora first came to me when I was on holiday in Prague. I was in the main Old Town Square, browsing around the “olde-worlde” market stalls, looking for souvenirs. I’d wandered quite far in, and I looked up and noticed that, from where I was, the stalls had pressed in so closely that all of the historical sights – all of the things the souvenirs were about – were completely hidden from view. In fact, all you could see were the rooftops of the beautiful old buildings over the tops of the stalls. And it occurred to me that if the stalls kept on encroaching over the city like that, they’d cover everything that was worth seeing, and they’d have to start selling souvenirs of each other!

It sounds like a silly little idea, but it wouldn’t go away, and the image of a beautiful and ancient city where anything could be bought and sold began to grow in my mind.

Agora is not based on one city in particular. Rather, it has pieces of every city I have ever been lucky enough to visit: Venice, Prague, London, Amsterdam… Cities are such wonderfully organic things, their populations and architecture and mood grow and change over the centuries, but at the same time their history remains imprinted into every stone, giving a vivid mixture of old and new. Agora is built out of the fragments of many places.

The Midnight Charter deals with issues of morality, corruption and power and asks important questions about today’s society. Is it important to you that your readers see and understand these messages, or will you be just as happy for them to completely miss the messages but enjoy the book?

I’m entirely happy for people to read my book any way they want!

I strongly believe that writing a book is not a one-way process. The writer is not the only creative part of the team. Every reader brings their own likes, and style, and areas of interest to a book. I’ve always enjoyed reading about ideas and questions, so naturally I engage with them and use them in the book, and I love it when people notice and enjoy them, because that is how I would read it!

But I hope, at the same time, that the ideas are interwoven with plot, character, atmosphere, pacing… that there is something for everyone. As long as a reader is enjoying my book, then they are reading it in the “right” way, and I couldn’t be happier.

How is work progressing on the sequel, The Children of the Lost?

I’m very pleased to say that The Children of the Lost is nearly finished. I’ve completed the first edit and it’s currently with my editor at Puffin, for any further suggestions. I have excellent editors, and although waiting for their opinion is never an entirely comfortable thing, (it’s very easy to get possessive), every time I have listened to the comments of my editors, the result has been a better book. I suspect that it is because they never tell me what I should write. Instead, they suggest what elements of the book need more attention, or are unclear from a reader’s point of view, and then let me decide how to fix it. So it always remains my work, but with the added bonus of a fresh perspective.

As The Midnight Charter finishes Mark and Lily leave the city of Agora. Will The Children of the Lost see us return to this memorable city?

Most definitely! Without giving too much away, Mark and Lily have a whole new story, a whole new land to explore, but that doesn’t mean that they forget about Agora. Far from it, their new quest will have a lasting impact on their home, one that even they may not be aware of…

Meanwhile, I couldn’t abandon the rest of my characters, and The Children of the Lost will periodically look back at what is going in Agora without Mark and Lily. I really enjoy writing these subplots, partly because I enjoy the change of pace of returning to Agora, but mostly because this allows some of the other characters from The Midnight Charter to have their moments in the spotlight, without Mark and Lily stealing all the attention!

How did the official launch of The Midnight Charter at Waterstone’s Chester go? Is this a nerve-wracking time for an author?

The launch was absolutely fantastic! The lovely thing about having a launch locally was that all of my friends were able to come, so it felt less like part of my job and more like a party!

I suppose I was nervous, in a way, who wouldn’t be, sending their first book out into the world, at the mercy of everyone else’s opinion. But getting great responses on sites like this certainly helps with that!

Which authors have inspired you most?

Phillip Pullman has been a huge inspiration – the sheer scale of his imagination is hard to beat. Charles Dickens would also have to be up there, his novels may be long and often rely on bizarre plot twists, but you will never find an author who can write more vivid and emotionally powerful prose.

Jonathan Swift is also really important to me. Any man who could write Gulliver’s Travels, somehow combining a lengthy political and philosophical satire with a fantasy adventure that still enchants people hundreds of years later deserves a lot of respect. And in a similar vein, Terry Pratchett manages to instil some wonderfully interesting thoughts and meditations on humanity and stories into novels that never fail to be really funny as well. That’s quite a gift.

When you were 20, you became the youngest writer ever to win the Cheshire Prize for Literature. Can you tell us a little about the winning children’s short story and whether Michael Morpurgo (an author we love) was able to give a budding young author any brilliant advice?

The story was called The Substitute, and it was about Seth, the younger brother of Cain and Abel. I think I was drawn to writing about him less because of the religious aspects, but because according to the Creation story, he is the most important son – the one from whom everyone is descended – and yet hardly anyone has ever heard of him. In the Bible, Eve says directly that he was born as a substitute for Abel, the “good son”. That made me think of the first line of David Copperfield: ‘Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show.’ I was struck by the idea of not being the hero of your own life, of coming to terms with being eternally overshadowed. There were several story ideas that came out of that. Maybe, one day, I’ll write up the others…

Sadly, although Michael Morpurgo gave an excellent speech before the prize was announced, and said some very kind words, there wasn’t time for much more than a handshake during the presentation. However, he did do me the honour of reading my story aloud, and the care and passion with which he read it was as inspiring as anything he could have said.

Fantasy Book Review is a site dedicated to reading and reviewing the very best fantasy books. If you were put on the spot and asked to name your favourite fantasy book of all time was, what would you say?

The terrible thing is, every time I get asked this question I give a different answer. I love so many books, for very different reasons. But I think if I was asked right now, I’d have to go for Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke. The sheer attention to detail and precise, witty world-building would make it brilliant on its own. But it becomes particularly fine, for me, by taking the concept of the Fair Folk, often used, and mixing it with historical mannerisms and a brilliant, twisted logic, to create one of the most memorable villains of all time.

You will be appearing at the Chester Literature Festival in October. Do you have anything special planned?

I have a couple of surprises planned… though I will be hard pressed to be more special than the venue. The Chester Literature Festival have organised my event in the wonderfully gothic Chapter House of Chester Cathedral. Black-cloaked minions will guide my audience from the front entrance, through the cloisters, and I will perform by candlelight. After an introduction like that, anything I do will probably be an anticlimax!

But it’s a wonderful opportunity to talk about the inspirations and ideas behind The Midnight Charter – the Age of Enlightenment, concepts of value, and of childhood. I also talk about the power of fantasy – how, thanks to the way a whole world shapes itself around the main characters and their stories, a fantasy novel can feel far more emotionally satisfying, far more real, than any other form. And I must admit, my favourite part of doing events is the chance to read extracts from my book aloud in a series of increasingly alarming voices…

Your new website went live recently – www.davidwhitley.co.uk – can you tell us a little bit about what fans will find there?

My website is set up rather like the bonus features on a DVD! Fans will find lots of background information on Agora and its inhabitants, including a travelogue of the city, narrated by Miss Devine, the glassmaker and emotion-seller, and a free, online story, set in Agora and featuring some new characters, and some familiar ones.

It also has information on the books and where to buy them; a downloads section with some beautiful avatars and wallpaper, drawn by Tomislav Tomic, my illustrator; a forum; an author’s section complete with journal where I leave my own thoughts; and a secret section, only accessible if you have read the book, where I can put some material that contains spoilers.

All fun stuff, and I shall continue to update it as often as I can, so do check back!

What does the remainder of 2009 hold for David Whitley?

I shall be doing as many school events and Literature Festivals as I can! (The next Lit Fest, after Chester, will be the Six Churches Festival in Cornwall in late October). Being very new, my main concern is that so few people have heard of me, and I can’t count on readers chancing across my book in a bookshop – especially since, with a surname beginning with “W”, it’ll usually be on the bottom shelf! That is why, of course, I’m so grateful to sites like this, with active communities of fantasy lovers!

Apart from that, though, the rest of this year will be most spent writing the final book in the trilogy – The Canticle of Whispers. It is fully planned, and I’m going to begin it this week. I’ve been concentrating a lot recently on events, publicity and editing, and while I enjoy all of those things in different ways, it will be brilliant to get back to creating something entirely new. It’s my favourite part of writing, and I can’t wait!

Posted: October 8th, 2009
Author: Lee
Categories: Interviews

Steven Erikson interview (September 2009)

Steven Erikson’s ongoing fantasy series, the Malazan Book of the Fallen has brought new life and originality into the fantasy genre. Steven Erikson kindly spoke to Fantasy Book Review in September 2009, shortly after the publication of the ninth novel in the series, Dust of Dreams.

We believe that you are now living in the UK full time. We would like to welcome you back to our little island and ask you if it was the weather or the cuisine that prompted your move across the Atlantic?

Neither. Out of the blue our son decided he would like to study archaeology in the UK, and this, combined with my wife’s desire to be closer to her family, as well as my hankering to be closer to two of my publishers (Transworld and PS Publishing) and the many UK-based friends I have made over the years, all led to yet another crossing of the Atlantic. That said, we’re probably getting too old to keep doing this, and I’m hoping this time we’ll find roots, maybe in Cornwall, or maybe somewhere else on the island. For the moment, however, Cornwall is home.

We live in a small village, and I am presently sitting in a very nice country pub a short ten minute walk down a footpath from my home. That path takes me through a graveyard so I am looking forward to the winter and walks in the grey dusk, with the wind howling.

We are all [at Fantasy Book Review] enthusiastic readers of the Malazan Book of the Fallen series but not one of us can claim to fully understand everything that has happened in the series so far. Should we beat ourselves up for not concentrating hard enough or is it simply that much is yet to be explained?

Honestly, don’t beat yourself up over it. One of the things both Cam and I were agreed on regarding this series, was to write in a style that conveyed a sense of vastness, with a strong flavour of realism where not all answers are forthcoming, not all truths survive their utterance, and sometimes mystery abides no matter how desperate we all are for an end to the questions. That said, there will be plenty of resolutions, but the world will not be wrapped up with a pretty bow.

As for the events that have been recounted in the books, well, things are always open to interpretation, and I am also rather pleased to learn from readers that the books fair well in re-reads. I am a writer obsessed with layering my narrative, so there’s plenty to find for the reader even after the raw events of the story are well-known.

Dust of Dreams is the ninth novel in the Malazan Book of the Fallen series. Do you believe that you have significantly improved as an author since the publication of Gardens of the Moon? Were there any weaknesses that you detected early on and remedied?

I certainly hope that I have improved as an author! Certainly I now possess a greater comfort with things like structure and pacing (although I sense that in the case of the latter some of my readers would rather I cut to the chase quicker than I do; to which I can only respond that my reasons for doing what I do continue to satisfy me, and trust me, if I am not satisfied absolutely no-one else will be. I am very deliberate in my approach, and I would humbly remind those impatient readers that their pace is not my pace; that reading is an engagement distinct from that of writing, and that at no time do I pad for the hell of it – again, I have my reasons!).

There is also a growing comfort with language that comes with doing this year after year, but I can still recall my earliest days at the University of Victoria, when I repeatedly blindsided my fellow students by delivering stories in a broad, unpredictable range of voices, so even back then I suppose I was trying out different styles, messing with rhythm, tone and point of view. All of that fed the fantasy novels, as I moved from voice to voice, from point of view to point of view. The exploration and discovery continues and to indicate something of my sense of that journey, I have recently been re-reading the series from the beginning (my first time doing this, and all in preparation for writing the tenth novel), and there are entire sections, especially in the early books, that I do not even recognize as coming from me. Sentence construction, certain phrases, the pursuit of notions in some unusual direction – all of this tells me that I am not the same writer, but I really cannot distance myself to the point that I can actually map out these changes. They come as a shock, each time.

In my mind I always separate out Gardens of the Moon from the rest of the novels in the series. I pretty much started full-time writing with Deadhouse Gates, and it is with this novel (the second in the series) that I can see the sharpening of focus, the crystallization of intent, that has continued to this very day.

Gardens had other demands pressing upon it. As I read it now I can see precisely what I was seeking to do and if I try to imagine how I’d do it now, well, I draw a blank. So maybe in that sense I haven’t improved at all! Or rather, I’ve not yet discovered that quintessential secret that would deliver that novel to the largest audience possible.

We all have our limits, I suppose. I have read reader reviews and comments on the amazon sites and elsewhere, listing the perceived flaws in Gardens of the Moon and advising what should have been done to fix them, and to my judgement, none of those solutions would work (and I should know, since I thought about them long before they did, back when Gardens was a pile of pages and rough notes on my desk). Advice is cheap and more often than not it doesn’t hold up to close examination. In any case, I often don’t agree with the observations being made, so I’d hardly endeavour to make changes to suit them, would I? I can see stylistic tics in that first novel that I no longer use, but I have spoken about this before, and besides, I think it’s something all writers discover in themselves. They try things early in their careers and if those things prove vaguely uncomfortable they get abandoned, and the writer moves on.

You have recently signed a deal that will see you write more Malazan Book of the Fallen novels. Is there a small part of you that yearns for a complete break from the series and a fresh start on something completely different?

With the tenth novel, The Crippled God, the ‘Malazan Book of the Fallen’ ends. While Cam (Ian Esslemont) has a few more to write in that sequence, I do not. The two new trilogies I am signed to write share the world and its cosmos, but they do not resume the arc of the Fallen. This may seem an odd distinction, maybe even an unconvincing one, but it is sharp in my mind. The whole point of the Malazan Book of the Fallen was to deliver a self-contained series, a slice of history, and to give the readers a sense of completion when they read the last line on the last page.

I also write other stuff, squeezing it in here and there, and with eighteen-month deadlines forthcoming (rather than the twelve-month ones I’ve been doing for this series), I am planning on doing a bit more of that.

Do you feel that discipline is vital for an author and that a certain amount of time every day should be dedicated to writing, regardless of whether you feel “in the mood”?

My own rule is four hours a day, at least five days a week. I don’t do word counts or anything like that. Discipline is essential to being a writer, but the specifics are entirely personal and there’s no hard and fast rule for how you measure a day’s work. All that counts is what comes out at the end.

Stephen Donaldson, an author you have been compared to on many occasions, has always spoken very highly of your work. In 2004 he released The Runes of the Earth, twenty-one years after the previous title in The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant had been published. Could you imagine coming back to complete a series after such a long gap? 

I’ve not been a writer long enough to imagine anything like that, but as a fan of the series, I am delighted that Steve elected to return to it.

Do you think that your books would lend themselves to film adaptation? Or would you take the JRR Tolkien stance and declare that your work is “quite unsuitable for dramatisation”?

Under the present format of film-making, the Malazan sequence is problematic. Note the caution in that statement. I know precisely how this series could be made, but I will save my pitch for some future meeting with a producer (and I anticipate the moment when their jaws drop).

Midnight Tides is, at the moment, our favourite book from the series. Although all of your work features humour, Tehol Beddict and Bugg take it to a new level, and it is often wonderfully surreal. Was this a conscious effort to inject a little more light-heartedness into the series?

A conscious effort? I don’t think so. I like to think the humour was present in every book, but I do accept that Tehol and Bugg delivered something new. But not as new as it may at first seem. Their precedents were Iskaral and Kruppe, as both characters engaged in a peculiar self-referential style of humour. Tehol and Bugg just took that one step further. The consciousness involved in their creation had more to do with offsetting the sheer gravity of the rest of Midnight Tides.

But even then, they arrived (on that rooftop) in one of those uncanny, slightly bewildering, fully spontaneous manifestations that hit writers on occasion. A bed? A blanket? All out of nowhere, completely unplanned. Once they arrived, I just sort of sat back and let them run with it.

Is there a fantasy book from your own childhood that completely captivated you? A book whose very mention brings breathtaking feelings of nostalgia?

Plenty. One I actually stole for a character in my non-fantasy novel, This River Awakens (written as Steve Lundin): Jack London’s ‘Before Adam.’ Others include Tarzan of the Apes (the first one, which I still admire) and some other Burroughs books. My nostalgia is more for a period in my life when I first discovered books –- both fantasy and SF – and the awakening of my imagination.

We have received many emails asking if there will be a tour to coincide with the UK publication of Dust of Dreams. Is there anything planned?

Alas, no, although I will be at Fantasycon in Nottingham. I arrived in the UK woefully late on delivering the next Bauchelain/Korbal Broach novella. It’s finally done, and I have already plunged into The Crippled God. No rest for the wicked.

Cheers
Steven Erikson

Posted: September 3rd, 2009
Author: Lee
Categories: Interviews, Steven Erikson

Trudi Canavan interview (August 2009)

By Joshua S Hill

It has become quite apparent to me that Australia is producing more and more of fantasy’s best writers. Thankfully for me, they are also some of the nicest people around, and one of the best, Trudi Canavan, was happy enough to sit down with me a few weeks ago.

Funnily enough, it turned out that we lived pretty close to each other, and so we met at my local shopping centre for coffee and lunch, and what followed was two and a half hours of great conversation with one of the better Australian writers’ I’ve come across.

Life for Trudi, however, is simple, and focuses very much on her writing. From dawn till dusk the computer is on and she is writing. But when dinnertime comes, her husband Paul and Trudi taking it in turns to cook, the computer goes off.

Some nights the pair can be found at a group of people interested about writing, bitching about one book or reliving the joys of another. Other nights might see them at the Melbourne Science Fiction club, or simply resting at home together with their 14 year old ginger cat.

Born and raised in Victoria, Australia, Trudi Canavan has always had a passion for stories. When in primary school Trudi’s librarian started to read a story that she had already read herself, she complained. In fairness, Trudi had read the vast majority of the library, so this was probably a little unfair on the librarian. Nevertheless, seemingly unfazed, the librarian asked Trudi if she would like to tell the students a story.

She agreed.

What followed was a lesson in storytelling that could very easily have turned Trudi off writing altogether. She reversed the original Little Mermaid story so it was the human male falling in love with the mermaid. For those who know the original story, you’ll know that the mermaid actually ends up dying, kinda. Trudi found that, despite hating the ending to the original story, she couldn’t change the ending in her own story. She had to kill off the human man who had fallen for the mermaid. Trudi noted that “the other kids didn’t like it very much. And that was my first introduction to how fans will react when you kill off their favourite character.”

Personally, I think we’re lucky to have any stories from Trudi Canavan.

Maybe we can owe our thanks for Trudi’s perseverance to the 80’s radio production of Lord of the Rings, which inspired her to not only read the book but to want to create something as epic. Or maybe we can thank the teacher that, after Trudi mentioned she wanted to make something like the Empire Strikes Back.

Trudi tells of what life was like after the second Star Wars movie was released. Between hooning around the playground with the boys pretending to be tie-fighters, Trudi went to a teacher and said that she wanted to make movies when she grew up. The teacher told Trudi that the movie industry was hard to get into, so maybe she should start writing her ideas down.

“I actually have a little book somewhere that I made by hand, the story of the Dollmouse, and I would have done that when I was 8; my first written book.”

Not surprisingly then, Trudi has a large collection of notes that date back to 12 years of age. Trudi’s most recent trilogy, the Age of the Five Trilogy, actually dates back to one of those original ideas.

“The Age of the Five actually saw me go back to a story I was writing at age 14. So I took out the really embarrassing elements, like the telepathic miniature winged horses, and the villain who wore leather so he creaked all the time. “

But it was in her mid twenties, when Trudi attended classes on writing and grammar that her writing began in earnest. And, following in the steps of her love for research, Trudi found herself investigating other Australian authors, looking for signs of tertiary education. What she found is truly fascinating.

“I did a lot of research before I was published, and I looked at all the authors that had been published and whether they had a degree and what the degree was in. And I found that only about half the authors had a degree, and only half of those had anything to do with writing. The other ones had degrees in other subjects like geology and biology and things like that. So I think you always need to have a great enthusiasm for other things as well. “

“I’ve got a great curiosity about the world,” Trudi continued. “I love reading non-fiction books, I love watching documentaries. I love going out and trying something. I’ve learnt weaving recently, and I know how difficult weaving is. I’ve done woodcarving, I’ve done pottery, and I’ve done fencing for awhile.”

Trudi is probably best known for her Black Magician’s trilogy, first released in 2001 (but originally written well before Harry Potter). She spent a long time waiting for one publishing company to get back to her, and dealing with a troublesome commissioning editor before Trudi moved on. “Eventually I got a real commissioning editor who took me on and then got me the publishing deal at HarperCollins. So I didn’t get any rejection slips. I always wanted them to give me a rejection slip so I could pass it on to someone else. So I wrote another book in the meantime, because you don’t just sit around and wait.”

Following on from the success of the Black Magician trilogy, came the prequel, the Magician’s Apprentice. And naturally, Trudi will be continuing that series with the Traitor Spy trilogy, set to be released early 2010, and to be set about 20 years on from the end of the trilogy.

According to Trudi, the titles to the books are a huge hint as to the content (The Ambassador’s Mission, The Rogue and The Traitor Queen). And for those who have read the previous books, the titles will probably tell you we will be seeing more of Savara and her people, who are also (probably) the women who disappeared out of Sachaka into the mountains at the end of Magician’s Apprentice.

One of the questions I love to ask authors is whether anyone in their books mirrors people in their real life. And though Trudi wouldn’t tell me who the character was, she does explain why she doesn’t like doing it.

“I always said I’d base characters on character types, not on people. But a few years ago I was scratching around to name a character, and I didn’t know anything about her, I just needed to replace a character. And so I stole a friend’s name, and altered it a bit, and I thought, what the hell, I’ll make it like this friend, because the friend had lots of personality. And then, this particular character decided to grit her teeth and become a totally different character, and she became evil. And I had this friend who knew I had based a character on her, but the character had turned evil, and I thought ‘I’m not doing this again’.”

There was a lot more to our interview, a lot that I’ll keep to myself. But for a lot more information on the author, make sure to check out Trudi’s website at www.trudicanavan.com.

Inspirations

• Star Wars
• The Lord of the Rings
• Ursula Le Guin

 

Favourites

• The Belgariad (David Eddings)
• Magician (Raymond E. Feist)
• Tanith Lee
• Glenda Larke
• The Southern Vampire Mysteries (Charlaine Harris)

Posted: August 12th, 2009
Author: Lee
Categories: Interviews, Trudi Canavan