Fantasy Firsts Guest Post - Tor/Forge Blog

Writing POC While White

May 10, 2017May 7, 2024torforge

Welcome back to opens in a new windowFantasy Firsts. Today we’re featuring a post by A.J. Hartley, author of Steeplejack, on the thorny issue of how white people can write characters of color with respect. Watch for Steeplejack’s sequel Firebrand, coming June 6th.

Written by opens in a new windowA. J. Hartley

My most recent novel, Steeplejack, is a vaguely steampunky fantasy adventure that centers on Anglet Sutonga, a woman of color. She lives in the city of Bar-Selehm, a place which does not actually exist and never has. The city looks a bit like South Africa but looks more like Victorian London than South Africa ever did, and its political system looks more like apartheid than like the early years of colonialism.

What this means, of course, is that I’m inventing the world and its people, drawing on current issues as much as I am those of the past, and mixing those with known histories. I am not a person of color (POC), and my writing one may raise issues that can be encapsulated by what I call “the Jurassic Park conundrum”: “Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, that they didn’t stop to think if they should,” or more simply as, “Why?”

There are several really good reasons why white guys shouldn’t write POC characters. First, they often do it badly, and by badly I don’t just mean incompetently, clumsily, or unconvincingly, but offensively. Too often writers play upon stereotypes and white notions of what it means to be a POC (please God, fellow white people, stop writing your Stepin Fetchit version of Ebonics in the name of authenticity). Conversely, and almost as problematic to my mind, many writers assume that race/ethnicity is irrelevant, so characters can be written as white and then (like the awful colorizing of old movies) given a superficial tint.

Race is a real and meaningful part of who we are, so writing a racially-neutral character and then giving them dark skin or an “ethnic-sounding” name doesn’t allow that character to reflect upon the social realities that shaped their sense of self, particularly how they have been treated by the greater, imperfect world.

These two extremes in how race is treated create a real dilemma for writers who may have the best motives in the world, but motives get you only so far; the success of any writing depends on how it is received by its audience, not by the intentions of the author. So how do you allow race to be a formative part of a character, without reducing that character to a kind of cipher for their demographic in ways that deny the essential and complex personhood of the individual? That’s the challenge for me: not hiding from race but also not allowing it—particularly my white man’s assumptions about what it is—to entirely define the character.

As a writer, I have a great deal of interest in the friction that occurs when some aspect of a person—whether it’s race, gender, profession, interests, tastes, personality, or whatever—is at odds with what might be assumed about them. That’s a rich vein for a fiction writer, especially one like me who has always felt a little between categories, never quite fitting in. But as a white man I understand that there are realms of experience which I do not have, and other experiences which I am socially-coded to ignore or demean. At least, I know it with my head, but not always in my gut. As a literary academic (I’m a Shakespeare professor) as well as a novelist, I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about the intersection of books and social issues. My home life has allowed me to see those issues in less abstract terms (my wife and son are POC). So while I believe I can understand a little how it feels to be an “outsider,” my gender and race have been, broadly-speaking, assets.

In Japan, for instance, where I lived for a couple of years a quarter century or so ago, I often felt excluded and there were occasional instances (generally involving older people) when I definitely felt the shadow of World War II, but I never felt looked down upon for my race in ways some non-Japanese Asians in the same community did. I have lived in Boston, in Atlanta, and now in Charlotte. In all these places, my Britishness has often triggered a certain “You’re not from round here” wariness or skepticism, but never contempt.

Other people usually assume I’m more sophisticated because of my upbringing (something my Lancashire, working-class school friends would have found hilarious). I’m constantly told that British people all sound smart to Americans, and while that remains baffling to me, I know I benefit from it. While I know what it’s like not to fit in, I’m not constantly judged or demeaned based solely on what people think when they see me. The legacies of colonialism, sexism, and racism are, to this day, power in various forms. Recognizing this has, I think, helped my writing.

My impulse to write characters of color is political and stems from the belief that writers have an obligation to reflect the world they live in. People approach that challenge in a variety of ways, but I feel compelled to try in a small way to redress the historical bias which has taken white (and frequently male, and almost always straight) as the default position. I don’t claim to be an expert, but I am committed to giving diverse characters my very best shot, while simultaneously supporting marginalized writers in the telling of their own stories.

People ask whether I did a lot of research into the lives of people of color before writing this book, and the short answer is: “Consciously? Not much.” As a white man, I don’t want to speak over my wife (who is East Asian) and son’s voices, but I can tell you how my family’s experiences of racism have impacted my writing as well.

Once, while at the grocery store with my mixed-race son, a lady approached me and very politely asked which adoption agency I’d used because she was looking to do the same. As part of an interracial couple I’m alert to these issues and see first-hand that people treat me differently than they do my wife. Some instances, known as microaggressions, are when people talk about the “little stuff”: questions about where she’s “really” from (Chicago), or the pleased relief that she speaks English. Some are more hurtful, as when someone dismissed her Harvard degree on the grounds that “They have quotas for people like you.”

When we first got together I had some very difficult conversations with some well-meaning people who, while professing not to be in any way racist, said, “It’s just the children I worry about.” I hear the fake Chinese some of the local kids start doing when they see us walking the dog in our very white neighborhood, and I’m now talking to my son about how he identifies himself racially in preparation for checking boxes in college applications. Compared to the reality of my wife’s grandfather’s World War II internment (and subsequent loss of all his property), these may seem like minor concerns, but my point is that we’re aware of race all the time. We talk about it all the time.

Life is the apprenticeship you need to be a writer. We all recognize the importance of writing what we know and—particularly in speculative fiction—expanding that sense of knowledge so that we don’t limit ourselves to the prosaically mundane. But what we know is often less about study and research and more about what we have absorbed through daily interactions. I am not a person of color, but the people dearest to me are, and I am made observant and reflective of their lot by love.

Portraying disempowered Otherness on the page is still possible even if you don’t know it (in your gut) as lived experience. You can research it. You can talk to other people about it. Hell, you can see it in the news every day. But writing a POC character when you aren’t one yourself is not the same as writing a profession you know nothing about—plumbing, say—which you can fake your way through by watching a few How To videos on YouTube. In the end, all you can do is try to do it with sensitivity and respect, but—and this is more important—be ready to listen to those better qualified to assess what you’ve done when they tell you you’ve got it wrong. Again, meaning well isn’t enough, and the road to hell really is paved with good intentions.

To return to the Jurassic Park conundrum, however, it’s fair to ask whether the attempt is worth the effort. Indeed, some say that white people writing POC characters or books is itself a form of appropriation, which means there is less room on the shelves for writers of color telling their own stories (there’s opens in a new windowa good articulation of this perspective here). But I also think that writing about race (and all the other “isms”) is important because all people have a stake in these conversations, and we need to find ways to discuss such things which break down that sense of our culture as fundamentally siloed, divided, and fractious.

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(This is a rerun of a post that originally ran on June 6th, 2016.)

Author Features / Fantasy Firsts

Leprechauns, Unicorn, and Deadmen

May 1, 2017May 7, 2024torforge2 Comments

opens in a new windowWritten by opens in a new windowSherrilyn Kenyon

When I was a small child, my grandfather talked about how everything, even the rocks on the ground, held a spirit and essence inside it, and my mother, on St. Patrick’s Day, had me convinced there were Leprechauns and Clurichauns cavorting in festive revelry under her favorite rosebush (and tormenting my puppy). I’ve been enchanted with the notion of the “unseen” world that exists side-by-side with our own ever since. Let’s face it, when you come from a family with as colorful a history as mine, you learn early on that what the eye sees is but a pittance of what makes up “reality.”

And the fact that we had a ghost living in my early childhood room didn’t help matters either. A ghost that was so active, my cousin refused to ever step foot into my room again, or to stay over with me. She saw my “friend” once and it was quite enough for her.

But I was never afraid. Quite the contrary. I inherited my grandfather’s defiant spirit and by the time I was sixteen, I was a regular participant on paranormal investigations—and this decades before anyone knew what they were. In fact, this was before the Poltergeist and Ghostbusters movies (yeah, I really am that old).

All the while, my writer’s imagination was soaking everything up. Every year of experience. Every location studied and investigated for its past and present. All the research materials went rolling through my mind. It’s impossible to be that steeped, that long, in history and the paranormal and not have your imagination run loose.

As historians, we give substance to our predecessors. We fill in as many missing details as we can, with as many facts as we can uncover. As writers, we fill in the emotions and motivations. Like Victor Frankenstein, we breathe life into our creations and make them living, thriving entities that if we’re lucky will go on long after us and reach immortality. There’s a not a writer ever born who doesn’t strive to touch that elusive bolt of lightning.

It is our Holy Quest. Our beloved unicorn. To create a world so vibrant and real that a reader is enraptured with it. That they, like us, want to live there. To breathe it. Feel it. Experience it, over and over again. Not once, but to return for countless adventures and to be eager to discover every single corner of it.

There’s no greater gift to any author in the world than to hear a fan say that they love our universe. That the countless hours of our lives and years of research we’ve put into it, and all the bullets we’ve sweated and dodged while struggling and fighting to make it unlike anyone else’s were worth it. That is the sweet symphony we crave. And it is the moment in our minds when we throw our heads back and laugh at the sky while shouting, “it’s alive!”

Yes, that is the unseen world in a writer’s mind. When you’re talking to us and telling us that you liked our work, we might look calm and collective on the outside. Inside, we’re turning cartwheels and somersaults. We are spiking that ball at the goal post. We are the three year old on a sugar high, screaming around the sofa that someone other than our mothers believe we don’t suck! It’s true. Just think about that the next time you meet an author.

And right now, as we begin this new adventure with Captain Bane and his Deadmen, we’re at the knuckle-biting stage. While it’s a part of the Dark-Hunter world, it’s a whole new realm and whole new time period. It’s uncharted territory. Something not done before. And like all the books and series I’ve written previously, it’s a setting not typically used, crossing genres in a way not typically done. But then I like defying the odds and blazing new trails. And I hope you’ll join me for this latest quest where the Deadmen finally get to tell their tales.

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Author Features / Fantasy Firsts

The Evolution of Technology in The Guns Above

May 1, 2017May 16, 2024torforge

opens in a new windowWritten by opens in a new windowRobyn Bennis

The Guns Above has not always been the book it is now. The title alone has changed several times. Paul Lucas, my agent, sold it under Bring Down the Sky. I worked on it under the title Mistral, which is still the name of the airship at the center of the story. Just before I started writing, however, title and airship were both Zephyr. In the development stage, they were Esper—which I could have sworn was a weather phenomenon, but which turned out to be something I half-remembered from Final Fantasy VI.

Much as the title changed, the technology evolved over the course of development. In the earliest outlines, my protagonist had only recently invented dirigible airships, and the technology was firmly rooted in the story’s original inspiration, Poe’s “Great Balloon Hoax.” In that fabricated newspaper article, Poe describes a propeller-driven airship whose ballast is regulated by a long rope dragged behind.

I soon realized that Poe’s drag rope might also allow an otherwise unpowered airship to sail against the wind. You see, a sailing ship can make headway against the wind because it is rooted in a denser, resisting medium: water. An unpowered airship, with nothing to resist its leeward motion, cannot harness the power of the wind to travel in another direction, but can only drift on it.

However, if a drag rope could generate comparable resistance to a ship in water, a balloon could theoretically propel itself with sails and even tack into the wind. To make this a little more plausible, I made the setting an expansive archipelago, so that the line, and perhaps even a drogue anchor, could be dragged across water rather than land. This was all the better, because now my hero could use her new invention to out-sail the merchant ships that plied those waters, racing ahead of the news of shortages and surpluses, and so finance her inventions with commodities speculation.

Oddly enough, David D. Levine faced a similar problem (in regard to technology, not the commodities market) when designing his interplanetary sailing vessels for Arabella of Mars, and he solved it in much the same way. His ships employ a set of kite-like drag devices which are sent off into adjacent air currents of the interplanetary winds. The idea is quite plausible in that setting, because the difference in wind speed is said to be so great between currents, and the resistance is consequently high.

My drag rope idea, though similar on the surface, would prove to be anything but plausible. It turned out that a drag rope had already been tried in S. A. Andrée’s Arctic Balloon Expedition of 1897. Far from out-sailing seagoing vessels, Andrée reported that his balloon could only steer ten degrees from the direction of the wind, and modern experts believe that even this meager claim was an absurd exaggeration. Worse, the failure of their sailing scheme was a contributing factor to the deaths of all three expedition members.

My drag rope scheme was a documented failure—the bane of all clever sf/f ideas—so I pushed the technology forward a hundred years or so, past the failures of the poor, doomed protagonist in the early concept. Sails became nacelle-mounted gas turbine engines, crude wicker gondolas became sturdy wooden decks, and—because the first thought of human society whenever presented with new technology is, “that’s great, but how do I kill people with it?”—my age of invention transformed into an age of grinding, brutal warfare.

To match the aesthetic, I imagined the crew of my airship fighting off their enemies with explosive and incendiary rockets. Due to the inaccuracy of such weapons, airships would engage envelope-to-envelope, much like the yardarm-to-yardarm battles of the age of sail. But, as cool as that sounds, it just didn’t play well on the page. Broadsides of rocketry don’t have the satisfying thunder of cannons, and I could think of no plausible way of following my broadsides with a boarding action—and without a boarding action, a broadside just feels empty, doesn’t it?

I therefore retreated a bit, moving the setting from dieselpunk to steampunk, and splitting the difference between my first two concepts. My gas turbines became a crude steam turbine and my decks returned to wicker. My ship became dramatically more fragile for the change, but it also became lighter. What, you think I wasn’t estimating the ship’s weight through all this? Please. My rough calculations indicated that, if my envelope were as large as my dieselpunk concept, but my decks were as light as my sailing concept, I had about a ton and a half of weight to spare.

And you know what weighs about a ton and a half? Two twelve-pounder carronades, plus ammunition and minimum gun crews. I decided not to waste time or risk disappointment by rechecking my math, but proceeded straight to sketching out the placement and capabilities of what would become Mistral’s light cannons, or “bref guns.” Now, bref guns are still implausible for other reasons—we won’t even contemplate the real-world effect of their recoil on Mistral’s airframe—but let’s be frank here; if you can find the merest excuse to put cannons on your steampunk airship, you put cannons on your steampunk airship, or you’re a damn fool.

Which brings us to His Majesty’s Signal Airship Mistral, as she stands in The Guns Above. Story and technology evolved together over the course of development, laying the groundwork to make the unbelievable into the believable. That, plus the trivial matter of actually writing it, produced a book that ought to satisfy all but the hardest of hard-steampunk aficionados.

Just don’t double-check my math, or we might have to change the title to The Gun Above, and that would just be unfortunate.

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Author Features / Fantasy Firsts

Interview with Sherrilyn Kenyon, author of Deadmen Walking

April 17, 2017May 16, 2024torforge

opens in a new window Welcome back to opens in a new windowFantasy Firsts. Today we are sharing an interview with Sherrilyn Kenyon, author of the forthcoming historical fantasy opens in a new windowDeadmen Walking—available May 9th. Preorder your copy now to receive a special print signed by Sherrilyn Kenyon! You can sneak a peek of the first chapter opens in a new windowhere.

How is Deadmen Walking different from your other books?

All my books are different. I don’t write them to any kind of formula, nor do I pay attention to genre rules. So to that, it’s like all the others in that it’s unique unto itself, with new and fun people, in a different setting and with different obstacles. No two are ever the same, but it has my signature sarcasm and humor. The dark moments, laugh-out-loud humor, and the adventure. It explores a different set of mythology (Caribbean, Celtic and Norse) that I’ve hinted at in earlier books in more depth. So it’s completely different, but does have some familiar characters from the Dark-Hunters such as Thorn, Rafael Santiago, Janice, Savitar and Acheron.

Have you always been interested in pirates and their history? Did you do any special research?

This isn’t my first pirate novel. I’ve been writing pirate adventures since the early 1980’s and first published two pirate novels in the 1990’s, so I’ve been steeped in the lore since I was first carried onto a boat while still in diapers. My father was an avid sailor and fisherman (as were my uncles and grandparents— one uncle and several cousins were even in the Navy, and I owe my life to one of them for his daring rescue of me during a harrowing boating accident when I was a teen).

My love of the sea and the lore makes even more sense as one of my direct pirate ancestors, Jonathan Barnet, apprehended the infamous pirates Mary Read, Anne Bonny and Calico Jack Rackham. I’m actually a member of the National Society of the Colonial Dames of America through that bloodline that goes straight back in a direct descent to the royal Plantagenets of England. Yes, it’s true, I’m a direct descendant of Eleanor of Aquitaine, herself, and of Charlemagne.

My direct ancestors helped found Savannah, GA, and Jamestown and Williamsburg, VA (as well as Andover and Plymouth, MA) so we have a lot of pirates in my family tree, on both sides (one was even hanged in Williamsburg). When I was a child, my father would regale me for hours with their nefarious stories, including one family member who lost his life in an infamous run-in with Blackbeard and another who is credited with bringing the Roosevelt family to American shores—all well documented facts. With such a rich family history of sea adventurers, and my father’s flare for storytelling and love of the water and sailing, I really had no choice, but to be drawn to the sea.

Were there any real life pirates that were the inspiration behind this series?

I pay some homage to a few of the ones my father raised me on. Mr. Meers is my tenth great-grandfather who lost his life to Blackbeard while returning from England. William Death was another great-grandfather who has a shady past in our family tree. Jonathan Barnet, of course, had to be in there. Along with Rafael Santiago. There are actually a number of them who were real people in my family tree. But I leave it to the reader to try and figure out which ones.

What drew you to bring Thorn into a new series?

Nothing. Thorn was always a part of it. You can’t have a Hellchaser book without Thorn. It’s like having the Dark-Hunters without Acheron.

Which of your characters would you like to spend an evening with?

Not sure how to answer since I usually spend the evening with them. I’ve spent every evening of my entire life with the people in my head. I’ve never not had them, so I can’t really answer the question. It would be like asking me what it’s like to spend the evening with myself. I was writing or drawing stories as far back as my memory goes. I was five years old the first time I declared to my mother that I wanted to grow up and be a New York Times bestselling author. I swear, that’s a real, true story. It’s all I ever wanted, so I always spend the evening with the people in my head. They’re with me everywhere I go.

Are any of your characters based on you or people you know?

No. My characters are my characters. They are living, breathing people unto themselves. I mean, it’s like having a child so there’s some basic DNA of mine in there, but at the end of the day, they have their own thoughts and reactions that are completely opposite of my own. That’s the beauty of them. They are themselves and I am me. I love to set them lose and watch them run.

What was your hardest scene to write in Deadmen Walking?

You’ll know it when you read it. But if I say it, it’ll be a massive spoiler. There’s no way to miss it, though.

What’s more powerful – love or vengeance?

Vengeance comes from love that has been shattered, betrayed or taken. Otherwise it would be empty and there would be no motivation to drive someone to the extreme behavior vengeance requires. Therefore love has to be the more powerful in order to create a need for vengeance.

What’s your writing process like – do you have a set place to write, do you set goals for how much to get done, etc?

None. I just write. I don’t have a process. I just do it.

What’s in the future for Bane, Marcelina, and his crew?

Fight evil, have fun, fight hard, and banter hilariously. Hopefully, they’ll win!

What’s the best or funniest thing a fan has ever told you?

That she was in labor in the middle of a signing, but that she didn’t want to miss the event and wanted to know if she could cut the line to get her book signed. Of course, we all told her yes. The rest of the fans were quite understanding about it. Later, we got an email that she named her son Acheron.

What other exciting books do you have coming up?

I have a few! Nevermore which was originally sold back in 2004 is finally coming out! SMP had originally planned to bring it out before the Nick books, then backburnered it for Nick. But the first of it will be out this summer. It’s about a plague that sweeps across the world and mutates humanity, giving us some rather interesting abilities (including magic). Mankind has moved underground and it’s a whole new ballgame! I had the old CryNevermore.com site up for a few years 2005-2009 and we’ll be bringing it back when we launch the new site in a few weeks!

And of course Silent Swans! The first book of it will be next year. It’s my return to a historical trilogy that focuses on three women in history whose names should be as well known as Washington, Jefferson and Adams, as those men wouldn’t have existed had these women not birthed their mothers and fathers. These are the women who came over and who shaped our laws—two of the women in book three actually fought a major legal battle both here in America and in England before the king, himself. Yet only die-hard historians know who they are, and even they rarely mention them. It’s time for that to change. These are women whose courage and bravery need to be brought to light. They’re not unknown, they just haven’t been given their voices yet. They lived in fascinating times and survived unbelievable, harrowing adventures that actually happened. They single-handedly changed our laws and helped to shape the very foundations of America. Reign, The Tudors and Downtown Abbey had nothing on them! This is real drama! And it was in our back yard!

Then on Dark-Hunter front, we have Urian’s book coming up! You definitely don’t want to miss Dragonsworn this August as it sets the stage for his Battle Born next year. I don’t want to give spoilers, but yeah . . . it’s a doozie!

For League fun, we have Ryn’s book where you learn a lot about his relationship with Darling and a lot more about Drake and Nero (Nero’s book will follow after Born in Trouble).

Oh, and I almost forgot! This Christmas, don’t miss the Dark-Hunter ABC book! It’s adorable! For all those younger readers and to go with the League and Dark-Hunter coloring books and all the parents who’ve been asking for it for their little readers who’ve been enamored with the YA and manga/comics. Post Hill Press will have the DH ABC on the shelves this Christmas! I can’t wait!

And yes, the Acheron comics are still shipping. The graphic novel should be out later this year. It will have all four issues of the comic combined into one volume. And the latest Dark-Hunter coloring book is hitting the shelves right now. I believe it’s the fifth or sixth coloring book and it’s all new art. The League coloring book will be coming out right behind it! So there are lots of new releases for fans to look forward to!

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Author Features / Fantasy Firsts

Building a Solid Writing Practice One Goal at a Time

April 12, 2017May 2, 2024torforge

opens in a new windowWelcome back to opens in a new windowFantasy Firsts. Today we’re featuring a guest post by Riders author Veronica Rossi on how you can build a better writing habit. opens in a new windowSeeker, the sequel to Riders, will be available on May 16th.

I’m a big believer in setting goals. Personal. Professional. Spiritual. You name it. I firmly believe you stand a much better chance of getting somewhere if you know where you’re trying to go.

Goals have been a huge part of my writing life. I wrote my first published novel, Under the Never Sky, by sitting down exactly seven years ago and planning twelve-months’ worth of targets. Without an editor to establish deadlines, I took on that role myself. I bought a calendar and projected drafting and revision goals that were specific and realistic. I had a good idea by then of my average productivity so I created milestones I felt pretty confident I could meet. And I did. It wasn’t always perfect. Some months I fell behind. Others I surged ahead. But having those targets—and hitting them—was tremendously encouraging. Big things are accomplished in small steps.

My second YA series begins with Riders. It’s a modern-day fantasy about four teens who unwittingly become incarnations of the four horsemen. These poor guys—War, Death, Famine, and Conquest—do not want to be what they’ve become but the only way to change their situation is to complete a mission. With the help of a visionary girl, they must protect a sacred object from some truly bad baddies.

Riders, which releases on February 16th, was written in a similar process as Under the Never Sky. Take out the scope. Focus on the summit. Project distance and elevation. Plan the route. Prep the materials. And go.

If you stick to a plan, you can write a solid draft of a book in a year. Really.

Having written several novels now, my focus as a writer has shifted. I know I can create books so my 2016 writing goals are about digging deeper. And though they’re writing-oriented I think a few might be helpful to anyone pursuing a creative endeavor. Without further ado, here they are:

Answer the “Why” — My husband recently read Start With the Why by Simon Sinek, based on his TED Talk of the same title. Though I’ve only seen the latter, we’ve been having many discussions about the central tenet of Sinek’s argument. Though it’s primarily geared toward business-minded folks, Sinek poses a question that he believes everyone should consider: What’s your Why? Why do you do what you do? In my case: why do I write?I honestly thought it would be an easier question to answer. After all, I’ve been writing seriously for a dozen years now and I love writing. However to truly answer that question requires some honest soul-searching. Do I write to understand myself? To understand the world? To inspire others? What, specifically, is the desire that pulls me forward, book after book?Most writers are familiar with the story premise or logline. Usually a formula that goes something like: Character does X despite facing Y obstacles in order to achieve Z goal. But what’s my logline? Why does Veronica write in the face of deadlines, writer’s block, etc. to achieve novels? I want to understand the true nature of the force that propels me to tell stories. Sinek explains that we attract people who have similar Whys. That is, whatever it is that motivates me is the very thing that aligns my readers with me. So. By having a firm grasp on my Why, I think I’ll be able to write even better stories and more fully enjoy my work. As I said above, when you know where you want to go, you have a much greater chance of actually getting there.
Step Away From the Computer — I took a month away from the Internet last summer and it was glorious. Seriously. It had an undeniable impact on my mood and my creativity. I was more relaxed. My focus improved. Even my imagination. I plan to do another month-long break this year.In addition to that, I’m going to spend more time working in notebooks. Not just journaling, which I already do, but writing. I started this recently and was shocked to find that my hand grew tired after only a page or two! Scary. But I’ve also found that I take greater care in crafting sentences when I put pen to paper. It causes me to slow down, to think. That’s a great benefit. I make my trade by creating good ideas and sentences—so anything I can do to improve on them is absolutely a priority.
Learn! — A dear writing friend of mine and I have been scheming for the past few months about the classes we plan to take this year. Poetry. Screenwriting. Short stories, maybe? Gasp! Perhaps. If we’re bold enough. We both always want to improve as writers so we’ll be taking online classes that push us out of our comfort zones, right into the growth zone!
Expand Horizons — Before I became a novelist, I was an oil painter. I spent a few years painting commissioned works as my profession. While I’m not sure I’ll go back to painting, I do want to bring another outlet into my life—and it doesn’t necessarily need to be creative. I started running last year and that had a strong positive impact on me. Like painting, running provided me with “non-thinking” time with no no room for email, Twitter, daily chores, or anything else.This goal ties in with the social media break I mentioned above. Too much external input can actually bring me to a point where I don’t even hear my own thoughts anymore. Through these “non-thinking” activities, my subconscious mind gets to stand up, stretch, and step into the spotlight for a while. With every passing year I see the importance of this increase. Making a practice of mental “quiet time” is critical for my creative health.
Be Patient — I’ve been writing on deadline for the past five years. Hustling. For five years. Even before that, when I was trying to get published, I felt this tremendous impatience to hurry things along. I wanted the agent so I could get the book deal so I could publish a book so I could be published so I could…?Write! Write more, of course! It’s what I love to do. It’s a circular deal. I didn’t realize that for a long time, but writing is the work and the reward—so why rush? A good friend of mine has a great way of describing it. He says: Writing to get published is a pie-eating contest where the prize is more pie. So, my goal is to take my time. Make a great pie. The best one possible. The writing is the reward.

So, in addition to revising the sequel to Riders, those are some of the things I’ll be working on this coming year. I think they all fall under the umbrella of being more thoughtful and connected to one of the great passions in my life. What are some of your goals, writing or otherwise? What’s your Why?

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Follow Veronica Rossi on Twitter at opens in a new window@rossibooks, on opens in a new windowFacebook, and on opens in a new windowher website.

(This is a rerun of a post that originally ran on February 1st, 2016.)

Author Features / Fantasy Firsts

Robyn Bennis Talks Military History and Gender Roles in The Guns Above

March 29, 2017May 14, 2024torforge

opens in a new window Welcome back to opens in a new windowFantasy Firsts. Today we are sharing an interview with Robyn Bennis, author of the forthcoming steampunk fantasy The Guns Above. Josette Dupre is the first female captain of the Royal Aerial Signal Corps, but her crew just might kill her before the enemy can. The Guns Above will be available on May 2nd. You can sneak a peek of it opens in a new windowhere!

How did you create the period feel of The Guns Above?

Primarily by way of my characters. This is an adventure story and I wanted to keep it moving at a quick pace, so most of the steampunk period feel comes from how the characters relate to each other. For example, esteem for the aristocracy is beginning to slip, with expertise replacing breeding as an avenue to respect—much to the chagrin and confusion of one of my protagonists, Lord Bernat Hinkal. In the city and aboard Mistral, he’s perturbed by how familiar people are becoming with him, while out in the countryside, where the technological revolution has had less influence on society, he’s treated with more courtesy and deference.

Beyond the characters, I like to slip in some background details that serve as reminders of the period I’ve built. So you’ll see horse-drawn carriages driving in the shadow of an airship, or regiments of Napoleonic-era infantry being transported by locomotive.

What kind of military research did you do for the book?

To give you an idea, here’s a picture of the resources I leaned on the most while writing it:

In addition to those, I drew background material from fiction and non-fiction accounts written by combat veterans, such as Matterhorn, Berry Benson’s Civil War Book, and the works of Ambrose Bierce. I also leaned on friends who are vets, and my grandfather’s old Air Force stories.

How did you choose which gender roles to subvert in a historical military context versus which you kept?

That followed naturally from the assumptions I’d made about Garnian society and the common (but erroneous) belief among the Garnian public that crewing an airship is a largely noncombatant role. Garnia is a fundamentally regressive place, but it’s also running out of young men to fight its wars. So allowing women on airships was sold to the public and the army brass as a way of freeing fighting men for the infantry. Call it equal parts desperation and creeping social change.

How did you pull together all the details of the world in a way that signals that the book takes place in a non-European fantasy world?

You wouldn’t ask that question with a straight face if you saw the first few drafts, because it turns out the answer is, “very badly.” I have my editor, Diana Pho, to thank for sitting down with me and, in a very patient voice that I assume she reserves for ignorant white ladies, helping me to make the book diverse and multicultural. We brainstormed up changes to names, foods, manners of dress, and houses of worship, crafting a Garnia that isn’t just a whitewashed version of 19th Century Europe.

What was your favorite section to write and why?

Without giving any spoilers, there’s a moment about halfway into the book, in which Josette has been brooding about what she considers a disrespectful move from Bernat. She’s been trying to avoid him, but circumstances force them back together, and her raw contempt just about melts his face off. I think readers will know which section I’m referring to, and recognize how much fun I had writing it. Really though, anytime I got Josette and Bernat arguing, it was a joy to write. They’re both proud and sharp-witted, in their own ways. When they butt heads, it’s delightful.

What do you do when you get writer’s block?

Typically, I follow these simple steps:

Self-loathing
Surrender to despair
Give up on writing career
Have great idea in the shower

I’m not sure they’d work for everyone, mind you.

Since you wrote The Guns Above in a coffee shop, what’s your favorite drink?

Call me a West Coast stereotype, but my drink is a soy latte. Really though, I’ll drink anything that keeps me caffeinated. The only major exception is almond milk. Put almond milk in my coffee and we’re going to have words.

If you could spend an afternoon with Bernat and Josette, what would you do?

Above all, I’d try not to piss them off. I’d rather not weather Bernat’s cutting remarks, whereas making Josette angry could be life-threatening. So how about a nice cup of tea and a relaxing trip to the spa?

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Find Robyn Bennis online on opens in a new windowTwitter (@According2Robyn), Facebook, or visit her opens in a new windowwebsite.

Author Features / Fantasy Firsts

Giant Hawks and Mountain Bikes: Alternative Training

March 15, 2017May 16, 2024torforge

Welcome back to opens in a new windowFantasy Firsts. Today we’re featuring a post by opens in a new windowBrian Staveley on how adventure racing helped him research for opens in a new windowThe Emperor’s Blades.

There’s a scene near the middle of The Emperor’s Blades in which a class of Kettral cadets, ultra-elite warriors who fly massive hawks into battle, are undergoing their final test: Hull’s Trial. People who have read the book ask about this scene a lot, and about Kettral training more generally. They want to know if I’ve served in the military – I haven’t – and then they want to know where in the hell all the training material comes from. The answer (aside from lots and lots of reading about military training) is adventure racing.

It’s an obscure sport, unknown to most people – a cross between orienteering, triathlon, and monastic penance. Teams (you compete with two or three other people, staying with them throughout the entire race) are handed a topographical map (or maps) at the starting line. Formats vary, but the goal is always essentially the same: find as many points as you can. Races vary from six hours to six days, and disciplines include trail running, mountain-biking, canoeing, rafting, nordic skiing, snowshoeing, and wading hip-deep through chilly swamps in the middle of the night with your pack above your head wishing you hadn’t eaten the last banana four hours earlier.

My wife has asked me many times why I enjoy these races, and the answer pretty much boils down to one thing: unpredictability. If I go out to run a 10K, I know what to expect. I can guess my time to within a minute. I know more or less who will beat me and who won’t. None of this certainty applies in the world of adventure racing.

The very first leg of my very first race involved paddling a massively storm-swollen river in northern Vermont. About an hour in, we hit a tricky little stretch of rapids, and our canoe capsized, then sank. So did the canoes of almost every other team. Dozens of people were pinned up against the bridge pilings by the current or running around both banks of the river, some trying to find teammates, others searching desperately for canoes and paddles, packs and maps. I remember hauling myself out of the water, finally, to find the race director laughing on the bank. Novice that I was, I assumed the whole thing was over. I asked what we should do. “Do?” he repeated, staring. “Do? It’s a race, isn’t it? Keep racing!”

That’s when I realized we needed a different training program. We kept up with the running and the biking, but we added new elements. One year, we all kept loaded backpacks by our beds. Once a month, you could call anyone on the team at any time and tell them to put on the pack and go run for an hour. Most calls happened late at night, usually in rain, snow, and high wind. We ran a lot of stadiums, which was good exercise, but sometimes we just carried our bikes around in the woods all night long, which was good exercise of a different sort. In a sport where thirty percent of the teams drop out of every race, emotional fitness becomes as important as physical fitness. In fact, it gives middle-aged, baby-raising, injury-plagued folks like me a chance against the hot shots with their spandex and carbon fiber bikes.

Not to say that I’d make it one week with the Kettral. As I said, I’m not a military guy. But, the scenes when they’re paddling boats with their hands or dragging around barrels filled with wet sand – well, all that sounds unpleasantly familiar.

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Follow Brian Staveley on Twitter, Facebook, or visit his website. Keep an eye out for his return to the world of The Emperor’s Blades in opens in a new windowSkullsworn, coming April 2017.

(This is a rerun of a post that originally ran on January 6th, 2014.)

Author Features / Fantasy Firsts

An Interview with Lady Trent, Dragon Naturalist

March 8, 2017May 16, 2024torforge

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Welcome back to Fantasy Firsts. We are pleased to share with our readership an exclusive interview with Lady Trent, author of A Natural History of Dragons, who graciously consented to answer a few questions one morning during a recent visit to Falchester. For her generosity and toleration, we owe her our thanks.

Written by Marie Brennan

Lady Trent, why publish your memoirs now? You’re already known the world over—what more could you possibly hope to accomplish?

I hope to be able to write a single line in response to queries about one part or another of my life: “I have discussed that in great detail in my memoirs, and urge you to consult them if you wish to know more.” I do not mean to sound arrogant, but the truth is that it has become exceedingly tedious, repeating myself time and time again in my letters. The notion of being able to direct interested parties to a single authoritative source has become very attractive, especially as I get on in years. My eyesight is not what it once was.

In all your published materials, one thing you’ve never discussed was what has been referenced in the lesser city papers as the “Chiavoran Affair.” Is there anything you’d like to clear up regarding that matter?

“Clear up?” I should say so, if you believe there is any red meat to be found in that incident—as you so patently do. Good heavens, the idea that anybody should still be digging around in the dust-bin of my life in search of entertaining scandal. . . but perhaps I can finally lay this one to rest. (Hope, as they say, springs eternal.)

The affair, if it even merits that name, was entirely one-sided, and largely imaginary at that. I was introduced to Dom Pappino quite properly during the opening supper for the Congresso Internazionale per la Ricerca Draconica, and he behaved like a perfect gentleman. We spoke at some length during the dinner, and more in the coming days, as he was very interested in my presentation on morphological lability—a topic I dare say you don’t understand in the slightest, much less care about, as there is nothing salacious to be found in it.

That ought to have been the end of things, except that after the conclusion of the congress, Dom Pappino followed me back to Scirland. He had business there—an interest in one of the fledgling caeliger enterprises—but yes, he also had an interest in me. What the scandal-sheets failed to grasp was that his motives were intellectual in nature, not carnal. At no point did Dom Pappino attempt to proposition me. His presence at the various social events I attended may have looked suggestive, but if there was any conspiracy involved, it lay in our mutual disinclination to small talk, and preference for the company of a scholarly peer. And as for the report that he was evicted from my back garden late one night, I assure you it is entirely false.

I admit I found his company wearisome after a time, as even I enjoy conversation on topics other than dragons, and Dom Pappino was nothing if not single-minded. But the affair, as I say, was largely imaginary, existing far more in the scandal-sheets than in reality. If this disappoints you, I am afraid I cannot bring myself to apologize.

In the first volume of your memoirs, you describe an unfortunate night-time encounter with Stauleren smugglers. Was it truly your quick wit, as you claim, that persuaded the smugglers to let you go free?

It was my understanding that working at a newspaper required the sort of basic literacy skills imparted in grammar school. Was I in error? Had you attended to your reading, you would know I claimed it was the self-interest of the smugglers which persuaded them to let me go, and not my quick wit at all. As for anything else, I will thank you not to make such insinuations again.

You’re well known for your inappropriate, unladylike behavior, yet somehow you’ve become a role model for a whole generation of young ladies. What do you have to say to the thousands of shocked parents whose daughters are clamoring to follow in your footsteps?

As flattering as it is for you to paint me in such light, I suspect you exaggerate with your “thousands.” Be that as it may, I do acknowledge the situation, and understand why it distresses some.

I would say to those parents that several hundred years ago, it was inappropriate and unladylike for women to sit intermingled with men in an Assembly House—but that standard has changed. So, too, has the standard that said women should never attend the public spectacle of the theatre; now attendance is almost de rigeur, at least for those who wish to be thought socially significant. Once it was unladylike for a married woman to show her hair; then lovely hair on display became the mark of a lady; I could go on, but I believe my point has been made.

The true question is not whether a given behavior would meet with the approval of our forebears, but instead whether that behavior is detrimental to society in general or the individual in particular. I quite understand the concern of a mother or father for their daughter’s safety; my life has not been an easy one, and I bear the scars to prove it. In such instances my advice might better be directed to the young ladies themselves, in the hopes of persuading them that adventurousness and recklessness are different things, and that getting yourself killed will impress no one. But the difficulty of youth is that you believe yourself to be indestructible, and so I can only hope that the young ladies will listen to me and have a care for their own well-being.

Not all of those girls are clamoring to get sick with yellow fever or fall over an icy cliff, though. Some are merely clamoring to attend university (which I never did) or subscribe to one of the scholarly journals. In those cases, I assure the parents that no harm will be done to their daughters’ health, unless perhaps the girls are prone to eyestrain, or become wild as some of our young men do when carousing in university towns. Such perils do not, in my opinion, outweigh the benefit that might be gained from allowing bright young female minds to stretch their wings.

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Follow Marie Brennan on Twitter, or visit her website.

(This is a rerun of a post that originally ran on February 4th, 2013.)

Author Features / Fantasy Firsts

Looking at the World Finn Fancy Style

February 21, 2017August 26, 2017torforge

opens in a new windowWelcome back to opens in a new windowFantasy Firsts! Our program continues with a guest post from Randy Henderson about seeing a familiar town from a new point of view and the inspiration for opens in a new windowFinn Fancy Necromancy.

Looking at the World Finn Fancy Style

I’d visited Port Townsend often before writing my book, but this time Finn had offered me a tour of its truly magical side.

Finn’s family home, like a surprising number of the houses in this small seaside town, was a massive Victorian affair that might have belonged to the Addams Family, with a yard of tangled plants and gnarled trees. A child would almost certainly find tunnels and caves in that growth, a secret fort, perhaps even a path to fairy land. And the garden — if I didn’t know better, I’d think a Cthulhu cult had moved in and were trying to breed tomatoes and roses together to create a plant of ultimate chaos, destruction, and evil red yumminess.

How could I not have been inspired by such a place?

Finn stepped out onto the porch, his day’s work in the family necromancy business done, his eyes bloodshot and watery.

“Greetings, program,” I said. “You okay?”

“Imagine the sweetest-smelling perfume,” he replied. “Something candy-like. Now, pour a bottle of that into your eyes. That’s the joy of fairy embalming. Why? Because you wrote it that way, you sadistic nerf herder.”

“I am your father,” I said, and made the Darth Vader wheeze.

“Lucky me,” he replied, and pushed past me.

We hiked toward town, but I was surprised when we turned north and headed uphill rather than down. Down was the way to the main waterfront street lined with funky shops, museums and restaurants, including the best ice cream shop and pizza restaurant this side of Italy, a giant store full of New Age magic supplies, and even a shop specifically dedicated to writers.

“I thought you were going to show me the secret passages,” I said, referring to the Shanghai tunnels rumored to still run hidden beneath the town, remnants of the 1800s when the town was a major shipping port.

“Too dangerous right now,” Finn replied. “They’re used mostly by feyblood creatures, and you did a good job of getting them riled up. It’s almost like you’re trying to build us up to a war or something?”

I avoided his questioning look and quickened my pace, whistling the chorus to “Blasphemous Rumors” by Depeche Mode.

Finn caught up with me, and as we passed the enormous, castle-like fortress of the Jefferson County Courthouse, he described the history of the town. Its many grand Victorian buildings spoke to the dreams of the town’s early builders, that this was going to be one of the biggest port cities in Washington. Unfortunately, the Great Depression, a lack of railroad connections, and a nasty infestation of gremlins killed that dream. But when most mundanes abandoned the town, the area’s rich and important magical history made it a natural home for humans and creatures of a magical nature.

Eventually, mundanes rediscovered the charm of Port Townsend and started to move or retire there, “fixing up” the area and changing it from a small town full of mill-workers, sailors and ex-hippy artists, to a town focused around tourism and the arts.

“In some ways,” Finn said, “I imagine you could compare the clash of cultures and classes in this town to that of us magicals versus the mundanes, or even humans against the feyblood creatures.” He eyed me sideways. “Though again, I hope you aren’t building us toward some kind of culture war?”

“What’d you say?” I asked. “You want some Culture Club?” I began to sing “Do You Really Want to Hurt Me.”

Finn sighed and took the lead again as I continued singing. We wandered our way eventually to Fort Worden.

Fort Worden is awesome. I love this place more than a brownie loves brownies, more than a Smurf loves to Smurf.

Fort Worden State Park was once a US Army base protecting access to the Puget Sound from any potential invaders in the Pacific, with enormous canons mounted on concrete bunkers. The bunkers remain, ghostly gray structures with mossy walls and rusting steel doors, and labyrinthine tunnels running beneath—a fantasy playground.

It was easy to imagine that those tiny arched holes throughout the bunkers might be doorways used by gnomes; or that the grass-filled stone circles might be man-made fairy rings; or, if inscribed with glowing runes, that the gun placements might be used for some purpose more devastating than even the thousand-pound guns they once held. It was easy to imagine that walking those narrow passages beneath the bunkers might eventually lead you somewhere other than simply out.

And those bunkers are spaced out along bluffs and hillsides covered in a forest of cedar and madrona, filled with hidey-holes and natural tree forts that just begged me to imagine what magical beings truly lived there.

We ended the visit on a bluff overlooking the rocky coastline and lighthouse far below.

“Thanks for the tour,” I said. “It’s always a good exercise to look at the world like a child might. I’ve gotten some great ideas for the sequels.”

“Ah, bat’s breath,” Finn said. “Look, if you’re really writing sequels, can you please just do me one favor?”

“What’s that?”

He blushed a bit as he said, “Maybe not make me so awkward with the ladies?”

I turned and walked back toward town, whistling Simply Red’s “If You Don’t Know Me By Now.”

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(This is a rerun of a post that originally ran on February 2, 2015.)

Author Features / Fantasy Firsts

8 Great Forest-y Books of the Fantastic

January 9, 2017May 14, 2024torforge9 Comments

opens in a new windowWritten by opens in a new windowThoraiya Dyer

Give me your Fangorns and your Lothloriens, your Green Hearts and your Elvandars.

Evoke your Haunted Forest Beyond the Wall complete with creepy weirwoods, your Steddings and your Avendesoras. Send me pleasant dreams about Totoro’s Japanese Camphor and the Forest Spirit’s kodama-filled canopy.

Or, y’know, tree cities full of Wookiees instead of elves. I will take them all!

Here are a mere eight of my fictional favourites:

The Magic Faraway Tree by Enid Blyton. When telling people I’ve written a novel about a magical forest, the most common response so far has been: “You mean like The Magic Faraway Tree?” This staple of English-speaking childhoods was indeed beloved by my smallish self, not only for the magic tree which grew all kinds of leaves, fruit and nuts on the one plant but the vast cast of magical creatures which made the tree their home.
The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling. Of course, the jungles of the subcontinent aren’t fictional. It’s just that this was the first book where I saw a wilderness treated remotely in fiction like an ally and protector, with its own languages and laws, instead of a hostile thing to be conquered. Wiser people than I have much valid criticism to heap on this book, and yet I still sometimes dream of stretching out on a rainforest limb beside Bagheera and Baloo.
Robin Hood. Ah, Sherwood Forest. Again, a real forest, populated by larger than life characters. Sherwood has been a forest since the end of the last ice age, apparently, and yet one man, the King of England, “owned” every deer in it. Hahahaha! I have my suspicions about what the druids would have had to say about that. Ancient oaks, here as elsewhere, form the heart of this forest, including the one that famously served as the archer-thief’s hideout.
The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien. The Hobbit seems to be about dwarves, elves and metaphors for sensible, down-to-earth English folk, but really, it’s all about the trees. More, it’s about how trees are good and the industrial revolution is bad.Tolkien lovingly names and describes them—oak, ash, beech, birch, rowan, willow. Tom Bombadil, a forest god, and Goldberry, a river goddess, seem the only incorruptible aspects of Middle Earth. Baddies cut trees down. Goodies, in contrast, reside in or amongst trees. Or hide in them from wargs. Galadriel’s magic sustains the Mallorn trees of Lothlorien which, instead of losing their leaves, turn golden and glitter. These trees, along with others of Mirkwood, the Old Forest and Fangorn can accumulate wisdom, act in the interests of good or evil, and are as beautiful, vital and alive as the speaking characters.
The Lorax by Dr. Seuss. “I am the Lorax, I speak for the trees!” —yes, I have been known to utter this in despair at parties when developers ask in all innocence why I don’t seem excited by the innovative architectural design. Even a toddler can grasp that when the last truffula tree is cut down, and the swomee-swans, humming fish and bar-ba-loots are gone, all the money in the world can’t save your soul, and it doesn’t matter that the glorious truffula forest is completely made up.
The Word for World is Forest by Ursula K. LeGuin. The title says it all, really (it’s a great title, isn’t it?) With it, LeGuin reminds us that our home planet is “Earth.” In many science fiction stories, including this one, we appear as “Terrans.” We’re all about the dirt, not the ecosystems supported by it, not just because agriculture is the basis of Western civilisation but because our religions or philosophies of superiority rely on separating ourselves from “lower” forms of life.
Walking the Tree by Kaaron Warren. The title says a lot here, too. In this fantasy world, Botanica, a continent dominated by a single mammoth tree is circumnavigated by girls in a five-year-long rite of passage. Walking the Tree is a strange and beautiful book with a complicated, likeable protagonist to keep us company on our journey across the colourful patchwork of her world.
The Broken Kingdoms by N. K. Jemisin. Like Warren’s work, the second book of Jemisin’s Inheritance trilogy is set beneath the canopy of a single, enormous tree. I loved the transformative power of this tree, the monolithic inability to ignore it. The rustle of its leaves was part of the music of this rather musical book—the main character couldn’t see—and the roots and branches grew and disturbed the order of the city of Shadow. But also, as with the Warren, the tree was a power that divided people, as opposed to bringing them together.

Forests in speculative fiction novels have a special place in my heart. Especially tree-cities. In real life, all forests seem magical to me.

I can’t think of a culture that has not populated them with myths or religious figures. In Australia, First Nations people will tell you about ancient spirits dwelling in our forests whether tropical, temperate or dry. Proud Lebanese will tell you that their cedar forests were used for Solomon’s Temple and to build Noah’s ark.

They may not know that those same cedar forests appeared in the Epic of Gilgamesh, circa 2100 BC. Those heroes fought off monsters and cut down the trees. In contrast, the characters of Dan Simmons’ Hyperion travel on treeships beyond the stars.

Take me there. I’m with you! As long as trees are, too.

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