Author Interview! Jaine Fenn

Having read and reviewed Jaine Fenn's debut sci-fi novel, 'Principles of Angels, I thought it would be really cool to put some questions to Jaine and see what her answers were. Jaine very kindly agreed to answer my questions and these were her answers...

Hi Jaine, thanks for agreeing to take part in this interview!

Your debut novel, ‘Principles of Angels’, is now on the bookshelves. Have you found yourself going into bookshops and rearranging the shelves so that your book is the first thing that shoppers see?
I’ve actually only got into two bookshops since the book came out, and one of those I was doing a signing in. But yes, I suspect I might not be able to resist in future.

For those people who haven’t seen a copy yet, can you sum up ‘Principles of Angels’ in ten words or less?
Revelation, redemption and flying assassins in a floating City.

What made you decide to write science fiction?
Lack of boundaries. So many worlds to explore, so many possibilities…

Are there any writers (sci-fi or otherwise) that have inspired you in your work?
Off the top of my head and in no particular order: Ian (M) Banks (both his SF and non-SF), William Gibson, Geoff Ryman, H P Lovecraft, Mary Gentle and Raymond Chandler.

When you were writing ‘Principles of Angels’ was it the setting or the characters that came to you first?
Setting, just. It was more the set-up, which brought the characters with it.

You put your main characters through a lot, which one was the most fun to write?
Taro. He really shouldn’t be allowed out by himself.

‘Principles of Angels’ features assassins called ‘Angels’ and a mysterious alien race called the ‘Sidhe’. Is there an element of fantasy hidden in your work or are you all about the sci-fi?
Oh dear, you’ve sussed me! Actually I love the tropes of SF – interstellar civilisation, weird tech, alien perspectives – but unlike a lot of SF writers I prefer stories driven by characters rather than by ideas. So definitely ‘soft’ SF. A lot of my more sexy technology conforms to Clarke’s Third law (i.e. it’s all but indistinguishable from magic)

Will the Sidhe be a recurring feature in future books or is there a larger universe to explore first?
There’s a whole lot more to find out about the Sidhe. And a whole lot more universe to explore too.

You mention in your blog that you have been dubbed one of the ‘Three Princesses of Fantasy’ (even though you write sci-fi!) Who are the other two Princesses and why should we be reading their books too?
They are fellow Gollancz debut authors Alex Bell and Suzanne Mcleod. Alex’s contemporary supernatural mystery ‘The Ninth Circle’ is a very atmospheric book which pulls the reader in from page one and has some plot twists that made me smile (in a wicked way); Suzanne’s first book, ‘The Sweet Scent of Blood’ is out in September, though I’m hoping to get an advance copy as it sounds intriguing; she has Sidhe too, but hers are rather different, and occur in a contemporary fantasy setting.

You also mention in your blog that your next book, ‘Consorts of Heaven’, is in the process of being submitted to the publisher. Can you tell us anything about what will be happening in this book? You’re allowed more than ten words to do it in this time!
‘Consorts of Heaven’ is not technically a sequel to ‘Principles of Angels’, as it starts several months before the action in ‘Principles’ and it’s set on a different world, one which is far lower tech and more like a fantasy setting. However, though it is not immediately obvious, the two stories are intimately linked, and the (surviving!) characters from the two books are now on a collision course.

Having now got one book under your belt was ‘Consorts of Heaven’ easier or more difficult to write?
In some ways a little easier, as I learnt a lot about the craft of writing working on ‘Principles’. But ‘Consorts’ was harder work, as I only had a year, and towards the end it rather took over, at the expense of everything not required for actual survival.

Finally, you’re an established short story writer but ‘Principles of Angels’ is your debut novel. Do you have any advice for any ‘would be’ writers who are looking for the break that you got?
Polite persistence. It’s very easy to get disheartened by those form rejections, but all we can do is try our best. And remember to write, first and foremost, for yourself, because whilst you may be your own harshest critic at times, you should also be your target audience.

Thanks for your time Jaine, I really appreciate it.


Photo courtesy of James Cooke.
Read my review of 'Principles of Angels' Here.
For more information on Jaine Fenn and her work, click Here for her website.

Author Interview! Jonathan Green

I've really enjoyed reading Jonathan's 'Adventures of Ulysses Quicksilver' so it was particularly cool when Jonathan agreed to answer a few questions for the Blog. Without further ado, here are his answers...

Hi Jonathan, thanks for agreeing to answer my questions!

1) You’re running a competition where readers can have a character named after them, in your next book, if they do something to raise awareness of the series. Does interviewing you get me entered?

Yes it does, as by my reasoning interviewing me will help raise awareness of Pax Britannia. Consider yourself in the hat, ready for the final draw!

2) You’ve written a number of books (including Sonic the Hedgehog!) in a number of genres. What has been your favourite area to write in so far?

I’ve always loved fantasy and sci-fi. Match Wits with the Kids (my next book to be published) and the one I’ve just completed (which will be out in time for Christmas) called What is Myrrh Anyway? are only the second and third times I’ve written something non-fiction, based in the real work, in 16 years and 19 books. That said there’s a fair bit connected with Christmas that you would consider fantasy and I’ve managed to squeeze some sci-fi references into Match Wits.

I have a real fondness for the recent Fighting Fantasy gamebooks I’ve written, which take me back to what I first wrote professionally as well as what it was like to read those kinds of books when I was 11 – and was quite simply blown away by them.

I’m also really proud of the Pax Britannia stuff, which I think gets better with every outing. They’re the first thing I’ve written set within a world of my own creating, rather that making use of a pre-existing setting (such as Doctor Who, Warhammer or Sonic the Hedgehog).

So, I guess a combination of fantasy and steampunk would be the simple answer.

3) What inspired you to start writing Steampunk?

I’ve also found its mix of Victoriana and science-fiction appealing. This has only been enhanced by writers like Tim Powers, Arthur Conan Doyle, H G Wells and Jules Verne. And then there have been the delightful anachronisms of Doctor Who (especially those adventures which take place within Victorian England), and the Victorian period of history itself – a time of real advancement and exploration when nothing seemed impossible. The Indigo Prime story Killing Time (by the inestimable John Smith and Chris Weston) which appeared in the anthology comic 2000AD in the early 90s was also a huge influence. (Time travelling trains before Back to the Future III – how could you go wrong with that?)

4) Have you ever considered writing a Steampunk adventure about Sonic the Hedgehog?

Now that sounds like a cool idea. Unfortunately, I don’t think the IP owners Sega are looking to extend the franchise in that direction any time soon.

5) Is there anything you can tell us about your next ‘Pax Britannia’ novel ‘Human Nature’?

Well, yes, actually. I’ve just started writing it this week, although it’s been plotted out for months. Human Nature is definitely the darkest of Ulysses Quicksilver’s adventures so far, one that’s really going to put our hero through the wringer.

Where Unnatural History was an action-adventure, Leviathan Rising a murder mystery, Fruiting Bodies pulp sci-fi and Vanishing Point the Pax Britannian take on a ghost story, Human Nature is a Cthulhu-esque horror story. Plenty of gribbly monsters and truly terrifying life and death situations for our hero to face.

But to get a better idea of what the actually story is about, you could do a lot worse than read the blurb I’ve already written for the back cover.

The Whitby Mermaid, prize exhibit of Cruickshanks’ Cabinet of Curiosities, has been stolen. But have no fear; consulting detective Gabriel Wraith is on the case. And he’s not the only one, for wherever there is a mystery to be solved, Ulysses Quicksilver is never very far away.

What does the theft – of what would appear to be a poorly-conceived fake – have to do with the mysterious House of Monkeys? And what of the enigmatic criminal known only as the Magpie? When Ulysses probes further into the case, he finds himself embarking upon an adventure that will take him to the industrially-polluted North of England and the fishing town where the curious creature was supposedly caught.

But there are worse things awaiting him there than mermaids. The moors of Ghestdale are haunted by the savage Barghest beast, while in the abandoned mines beneath the Umbridge estate, impossible abominations lurk in the darkness, waiting. And yet Ulysses Quicksilver is about to discover that the worst horrors are those spawned by Man’s own selfish nature.

Trapped within the very heart of darkness, with his body and sanity threatened, can he escape a fate worse than death – with both still intact – before one man’s insane quest for immortality comes to fruition?

6) How much fun do you have in writing a character like Ulysses Quicksilver?

A lot; in fact it’s almost criminal how much fun I have sitting at home, listening to some appropriately mood-setting soundtrack whilst writing Pax Britannia stories, while other people actually have to go out an work all day!

I suppose it’s something of a cliché, but writing a character like Ulysses you get to ‘live out’ your fantasies, doing all the daring, exciting and life-threatening things you would never do in real life (at least, I wouldn’t). That said, with what’s coming up in Human Nature, I wouldn’t want to be in his shoes at all!

7) You have the chance to team Ulysses Quicksilver up with Sherlock Holmes, Captain Nemo or Dr Jekyll/Mr Hyde. Which one would you choose and why?

I think it would have to be Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. I’ve also been fascinated by the whole idea of man conquering the beast inside him (or not), as well as looking at what it takes to make a good man into a creature of evil. It’s an idea I’ve explored in some of my books in the past (Necromancer and Howl of the Werewolf both have elements of this in them) and I’m sure I’ll come back to it again in the future. In fact, I know I will… in Pax Britannia.

8) You work as a teacher, would you ever give it up to write full time? Have you ever been tempted to model your villains on colleagues that you don’t like?

I’m actually giving up teaching completely this summer, having gone part-time at the start of the last school year. Too many projects, not enough time, and… well… something had to give.

I have to say I’ve never been tempted to model any villainous characters on people I’ve worked with, because they’re all far too nice ;-)

However, I have worked with a few characters over the years (which is how they would probably describe me) and I do have a nugget of an idea for a novel centred upon a school staffroom. Who knows, maybe one day…?

9) At the last count, you’ve got six blogs on the go! How do you manage keeping them all going at once? Do you ever find yourself posting in the wrong blog?

Technically I only manage five (the first was a mistake when I was new to blogging) but yes, it does take some work. Usually it involves me working late into the night to try and keep everything alive on there. I don’t want to be one of these writers who doesn’t post anything for months at a time, but neither will I post drivel, just so as to post something every day.

And yes, I did post to the wrong blog once – but only once, so far, and realised my mistake in time to change it.

Part of the reason for having so many blogs is to help promote individual books (a very good suggestion put forward once at a writers’ seminar). Hence I currently have two blogs named after books coming out this year and a more generic one for my Pax Britannia stuff.

The Jonathan Green, Author blog is really supposed to be the front door into everything else; professional, relevant, with info on publications, events and competitions. Unnatural History (which was my first blog) is the more relaxed, informal one which includes posts on things which have caught my eye or other intriguing trivia.

10) Finally, why should everyone be reading your ‘Pax Britannia’ books?

Because they’re great fun reads and an entertaining way to take yourself out of the world for a few hours. Also, there’s a big story in there that’s steadily beginning to take shape (and which I had planned from day one), so you want to be there for the ride and the dramatic denouement in about… twelve books time (or thereabouts).

Thanks for your time.

It’s been a pleasure.

Jonathan Green
London, June 2008

Read my reviews of Leviathan Rising and Unnatural History!

Jonathan's Author Blog can be found Here.

Author Interview! Gary Braunbeck

If you browse through everything under the 'Horror' label, here, then you'll soon see that I've got nothing but good things to say about Gary Braunbeck, he writes some seriously scary stuff that is still rattling around in my head monthes after I've read it! Being more than a little bit of a fan, I was really excited when Gary kindly agreed to answer some questions about Cedar Hill, his writing and horror in general. Here's what he had to say...

Hi Gary, thanks for agreeing to take part in this interview!

1.‘Mr Hands’ is one of my favourite book titles as well as a great name for a murderous killer doll with huge hands. Where did that name come from? As a child, did you have a toy action figure with abnormally sized hands?

“Mr. Hands” was the name given to the creature by Alan Clark, who created a series of eerily gorgeous paintings and sketches focusing on it. Alan always wanted to know the story behind the monster, so he asked me to tell him its story. The novel would not exist were it not for Alan Clark, which is why the book is dedicated in part to him.

As a child, I had one of those red “Monster Magnets” that was designed to look like a grimacing face growing out of two hands, and the damn thing always gave me the willies. Wish I still had it.

2.For anyone reading who hasn’t read your work, what can you tell us about Cedar Hill and the overall tale that takes place within it?

Cedar Hill is a town that is located in a part of the world where – as one character describes it – “…the walls of reality aren’t quite squared, so sometimes things slip through.” It’s a nexus populated by people who have come to accept the everyday weirdness around them. There is a small group of central characters who always pop up in one way or another in the cycle of books and stories, and central to this group of characters is the man known only as “The Reverend” who runs the Open Shelter (and serves as the omniscient narrator in Coffin County). It’s a place where the sins, violence, and horrors of the past have never truly gone away, and can re-emerge anywhere at any time.

The overall story of Cedar Hill is one of…I guess you’d call it “reconciliation.” Only in the case of Cedar Hill and its denizens it’s an on-going grappling with violence, suffering, and grief, and how the characters try to reconcile these elements with the idea of a Just and Loving God who watches over a universe where, supposedly, even the most banal of a human being’s daily actions carry some greater meaning than what is glanced on the surface.

In short: the central story is concerned with how the individual faces unspeakable horrors and still manages to find a reason to keep going.

3.How much background knowledge, of the Cedar Hill mythos, do you think a reader should have before reading ‘Coffin County’? Is it a book that people can just jump straight into?

Coffin County can be read as a stand-alone novel without any previous knowledge of the myths and legends in Cedar Hill’s history. But if a new reader can, I’d urge he or she to read the 4 books in the order they were written: In Silent Graves, Keepers, Mr. Hands, and Coffin County.

This isn’t an underhanded attempt to sell more books, but if one has read the 3 previous novels, then there’s a bit more to (hopefully) enjoy. But, just to repeat, Coffin County can be read as a stand-alone.


4.Things get pretty bleak in ‘Coffin County’ as we see a mental process that leads people to commit unspeakable acts. How do you maintain a distance from your subject matter so that you don’t end up feeling really depressed and shooting your neighbours?

Who says I maintain a distance? Point them out, give me names and addresses!

At some point during the writing of a Cedar Hill story – be it a short story, novella, or novel – there is no distance, and I fall into a fairly grim mindset – just ask my wife. It’s not something that I can help, and even if I could help it, I’m not sure I’d want to. If you expect to make the reader feel something, you yourself have to be experiencing those emotions and impulses as you write the story, or else it’s all just posturing and affectation. If you only want to go for the throat, for a quick shock or gross-out, that’s fine, but if you’re aiming for something deeper inside the reader, the heart and psyche and spirit, you can’t fake it. Make it as honest and unfiltered as you can without killing yourself, and the reader will feel the truth of those feelings, even those that lean way over into dark territories.

And to be completely honest, I’ve been getting treated for clinical depression for most of my life, so it’s a lot easier for me to access these bleaker feelings and be able to express them with what I hope is honesty on the written page.

5.In ‘Coffin County’, policeman Ben Littlejohn is faced with a horrible decision to make right at the end of the book. As the author, how much leeway do you give a character in terms of letting them make these decisions? Do you allow them to surprise you with their actions? Have you ever had to shoehorn a character back into the direction you wanted the plot to go?

I’ve found that, if a character decides to step in and take things out of my hands, that usually means I was moving things in the wrong direction. For me, plot comes from characterization and the interaction of those characters, not vice-versa. The best example I can offer is that of Rael from In Silent Graves. I’d originally intended for him to appear briefly at the start of the book, maybe a second, shorter appearance somewhere toward the middle, and once more at the end – but he had other plans. No matter how hard I tried to keep him out of things, the son-of-a-bitch kept showing up and moving the story in different directions, and suddenly I had three major characters instead of the two I’d planned on. If I’d succeeded in pushing Rael out of the way, if I’d let my ego and not the story dictate the direction of the narrative, the novel would have been a disaster.

So, no – I’ve never shoehorned a character back into a situation or direction where he or she didn’t belong.

6.You’ve mentioned on your message board that you’ve written over a hundred stories set in Cedar Hill. Even though this is obviously a decision that you’ve made yourself, how does it feel knowing that your Cedar Hill cycle is coming to an end? Is Cedar Hill a location that you are planning to re-visit in the future?

The cycle itself is not coming to an end, merely this branch of it. Admittedly, it’s taken me 26 years to get to this point, so it does feel a little like saying farewell to over half my life, and in a way that saddens me, but it’s also a new set of challenges.

By the time Far Dark Fields (the 5th Cedar Hill novel from Leisure) and The Carnival Within have been released by this time next year, the Cedar Hill timeline will have been at last established; here’s where it all started, here’s where it all ended. But I have deliberately been leaving gaps in the timeline that I can go back and fill in. If one is going to attempt to create an entire universe in which the majority of one’s tales are going to be set, then one sticks with it. Look at what Charles de Lint has done with his Newford tales. Damn near everything he’s written has been set there, and has continued to focus on a central set of characters. Because of his dedication to it, Newford is as rich and wondrous a universe as is Narnia or Middle Earth.

So I’m not leaving Cedar Hill anytime soon.

7.There’s a post on your message board where you’ve said that you will be taking your writing in a couple of new directions, namely mystery and urban fantasy. People can read your post and find out why you are moving away from horror but what was it that prompted you to move towards writing mystery and urban fantasy?

It’s not that I’m “moving away” from horror – I’m proud to be called a horror writer and always will be – but the majority of my stuff doesn’t quite fit in to a single category. That wasn’t a deliberate choice, it’s just the way it turned out. A lot of readers of traditional horror think my work has no business being mentioned in the same genre as King and Straub and Keene and Barker and Langhan and dozens of other writers because it doesn’t adhere to the traditional tropes (and that is not a slam against those wonderful storytellers, far from it). It boils down to my work being a bit too whimsical at times for hardcore horror readers, but way too grim and dark for readers of traditional fantasy.

As for mystery, I’ve written and published dozens of mystery and suspense stories over the years, many of which take place in or around Cedar Hill. If I’m going to more fully develop and explore this universe, then I’ve got to start making some unexpected turns, taking new chances, and moving a little more into mystery and urban fantasy will help strengthen the base on which the whole shebang is built upon.

8.Your short story, ‘We now pause for station identification’ won a Bram Stoker award but I can’t find it anywhere (I’m more than likely looking in the wrong places)! Where can I find this tale and why should all horror fans make sure they read it as well?

I was really stunned when “We Now Pause for Station Identification” received the Stoker Award because it was a zombie story – something I vowed I’d never write unless I could give it (in my eyes) a fresh perspective. When the chapbook was released, a lot of people were surprised to see that I’d dedicated the story to Brian Keene. Bear with me for a few more moments and I’ll give you an actual answer, promise.

I had been reading Brian’s The Rising, and early on in the novel there is this throwaway line about the main character listening to a radio DJ finally flip out and killing himself on the air. That conceit intrigued the hell out of me for some reason, so I asked Brian if he had any plans of doing anything with that particular event in a later book or story. He said no, it was just something he threw in in order to illustrate the psychological disintegration of society, and that if I thought I could do anything with that situation, I had his blessing.

So I decided to write a story about a DJ who’s barricaded in the broadcast booth while the dead crawl out of their graves and make their ways back home. But instead of telling it in 3rd-Person, I decided that the story would be a rambling, sleep-deprived monologue as he describes what has happened, what is happening, and what will happen. Midway through the monologue, the “zombies” began taking on much different characteristics than those usually associated with them, and I had no control whatsoever over what my narrator was seeing and describing; as a result, there’s this almost numinous sea-change right in the middle of the story that takes it in a direction I’d never even considered going in, and the story becomes more about physical and spiritual re-birth than about the end of days. I re-read the story before we started this interview and I still find it hard to believe that I wrote it. A happy, even joyous zombie story? What idiot would ever try that? (He said, nervously raising his hand.)

Why should all horror fans read it? Ooooh, boy, that’s not a loaded question at all, is it?

Okay, here goes (and hopefully this won’t sound egotistical or arrogant): horror fans should read it because it’s a good example of both what and how I write, but more than that, I think “We Now Pause…” shows that, with a little extra effort and a willingness to look at things from a parallax viewpoint, it’s possible to breathe new life into a traditional trope. Bear in mind, that was not my intention when I sat down to write it. I’m not claiming to have re-invented the wheel or have broken new ground or some-such happy horseshit like that; all I set out to do was tell a story about one man’s acceptance of his individual destiny, and how that destiny was tied in with that of all humankind. I wanted to write a zombie story that subtly incorporated String Theory.

Jesus, could I sound any more pompous? This is why I try to avoid questions about why people should read my work; once I get going on the explanation, I start to sound self-important in my own ears and wind up wondering why anyone would bother reading my stuff in the first place. Thanks, Graeme, for allowing me to parade my dreadful personality problems in front of everyone ;)

As to where you can obtain a copy of the chapbook – good luck with that. Your best bet would probably be to check Ebay or half.com or Alibris. I’m hoping that there will be an opportunity for me to reprint the story somewhere soon.


9.Someone comes up to you, in a bookshop, and asks you to recommend them some good horror fiction. Name a couple of authors who you think are doing really good things right now…

Christopher Golden and Tom Piccirilli are both nearing the height of their considerable powers; Tim Lebbon has all but reinvented himself as a storyteller with his amazing Noreela series; Horror’s Two Sarahs -- Pinborough and Langan
-- are writing some of the most eerily beautiful prose to be found anywhere; Steve Rasnic Tem and Melanie Tem just released The Man on the Ceiling, which is to my mind a stunning work of art; and Richard Dansky’s Firefly Rain is a novel that illustrates everything good horror should be but so often isn’t.

10.And finally, Cedar Hill can be full of horror but there is beauty there as well (as your short story ‘I’ll play the blues for you’ shows). Would you live there?

Hell, I already do live there – and some nice property just became available a few doors down. Once they get the bloodstains out of the hardwood floors, it’ll be as good as new. I know the realtor and can get you a good mortgage rate…

Thanks for your time Gary, I really appreciate it.

For more information about Gary Braunbeck, and his work, have a click
Here for his official website. Reviews for Mr Hands and Coffin County are on the blog if you fancy a look.

Author Interview! Mark Charan Newton

After finishing 'The Reef' (review below) I found that I was left with loads of questions that I wanted to ask Mark. Thanks to the wonders of modern technology (and Mark's willingness to be interviewed, thanks Mark!) I got to ask these questions and the answers can be found below...

Hi Mark, thanks for agreeing to do this interview.

You work for Solaris Books, what’s it like working on the ‘other side of the fence’
as a writer?

I was writing before I worked at Solaris, back when I used to work in bookselling, so it was really editing work that was the 'other side' for me. Combining the two jobs isn't easy -- I can spend all day reading, an hour or two writing in the evenings, and then to relax... reading! But I think working as a writer helps me understand writers, from a publishing perspective. A heck of a lot of effort goes in to writing a book, a lot of emotions, blood, sweat and tears. And it also means that when I'm writing, I know what editors go through too... But it means that the industry is my life. And that's not a bad thing at all. I get to meet some great people!

While it may be early days, can you ever see yourself scaling down your career in publishing to pursue your writing full time?

As soon as I can afford the beach house... We always get worried when we hear, at Solaris, that writers are giving up the day job. It's a very fragile career, and a rare few individuals can succeed enough to get by. At the moment, I love doing both. They're a nice compliment to each other.

What gave you the initial idea for ‘The Reef’? I’m going to assume that it didn’t come about through your watching a TV show on marine life…

Not quite! I studied Environmental Science at university, back before everyone became eco-fashionable. A lot of scientific philosophy was the starting point—I can bore you about ecological systems and emergent properties, or about the differences between natural systems and human influenced ones. The natural world can be just as bizarre as any imagined one. So I had a lot of theory kicking around in my head, which needed an outlet. Plus islands are a great literary tool—traditionally, things clash when a group of people are alone, issues brought into the foreground. And I like cool creatures. I wanted to write about them. I wrote this when I was about 23/23 (just turned 27 now...), so all this stuff was still fresh in my head.

‘The Reef’ has been compared to both China Mieville’s work as well as Joseph Conrad’s ‘Heart of Darkness’. How does it feel having your work compared to these authors? Were they a source of inspiration for your work?

China Miéville is the reason I started writing. I read THE SCAR and something was awakened within... He's a massive influence. If I could approach half of what he's done, I'll be chuffed. At the time of THE REEF, Hemingway was a big thing for me. Conrad wasn't a major influence, but more indirectly through Hemingway etc. I wanted to write about absolutely strange things, but with a clipped and precise style. It's not like how I write my current work, but I wanted the challenge, at the time, of combining the two.

‘The Reef’ is a ‘stand-alone’ work but there is also a lot of content that hints at wider struggles and issues. For example, why was there a rebellion against science? Will ‘The Reef’ be a springboard for more books set on the continent of Has-Jahn?

Perhaps one day. There is a lot of background that I know about, but like to have left as a mystery for now. I in fact wrote a novel in this world before THE REEF -- which got me my agent, John Jarrold, but it was in that curse-word category, the New Weird, which no publisher anywhere in the world wants to touch. The New Weird is dead. It was barely alive to begin with. So after this, I concerned myself with more traditional settings, and assiduously set about building something much bigger and more widescreen. There are going to be subtle links between this book and the next projects, but very small threads indeed. I'd like to revisit one day, but now I've sold the deal to Macmillan / Tor, it's not going to be any time soon.

‘The Reef’ seems to primarily concern itself with the moral, spiritual and ideological journeys of its characters. Was it difficult to strike a balance between this and giving your readers some grounding re. the world that the story is set in (bearing in mind that ‘The Reef’ isn’t a long book)?

Incredibly so. Primarily, books have to have a good story, else people will bore themselves to death reading it. Not what you want. If a writer starts getting too much into philosophy, and abandoning characterisation, plot etc., it is basically, excuse my French, masturbating on the page. No one wants to see that. So you have to work these things in gently around the plot, in my opinion.

I noticed that there are no maps in ‘The Reef’. Was this a publishing consideration or are you a person who has something against maps?

None of the above really. I didn't draw one (even though I know where everything is), and one wasn't asked for. I do like a good map, though. I'm not against them!

You’ve just seen someone, in a book shop, debating whether to buy a copy of ‘The Reef’. Tell them what they will be getting for their money!

Something very different from any other fantasy book they've ever read!

2008 is set to be a busy year for you with Tor UK publishing your next novel ‘Nights of Villjamur’. What can you tell us about this and why should we be rushing out to buy it?

Tor are publishing it in early 09, and I'm really excited to be working with them; especially the editor, Peter Lavery, who published authors I admire greatly. NIGHTS OF VILLJAMUR is a noir fantasy, if we're loving the whole classification game like I do. Noir not simply meaning dark, although it is dark, but because it has a vicious streak of proper crime noir, which is a genre with its own conventions to play with. That's reflected in the title choice: Nights with an N, not a K. It's got refugees fleeing to escape an ice age. A few controversial characters, morally, sexually and otherwise. It's got garudas, Backstabbing? You bet. There's some some different magic in the form of remnants from some other era. The dead are walking across the tundra. And there are banshees, too. I wanted to turn the flame up on fantasy. I wanted it to be big, bad, pushing different buttons, and giving readers a thrill. Serious but fun too. It's really inspired by M John Harrison's VIRICONIUM books, and Steven Erikson's Malazan Empire novels. Two great writers. I think it'll appeal to Scott Lynch / George R R Martin readers too. Certainly that end of things.

Thanks again for your time Mark, I really appreciate it.

For those of you who want to find out more about Mark, his site is over Here

Interview! John Joseph Adams

One of the first books I reviewed this year was Wastelands, a collection of short stories edited by John Joseph Adams. John was kind enough to answer some questions about the editing process, the stories in the book and post-apocalyptic fiction in general. Here's what he had to say...

Hi John, thanks for agreeing to take part!

What made you suddenly think, “You know what? I’m going to edit a collection of post-apocalyptic stories…”?

I've long been a fan of post-apocalyptic fiction. I first became fascinated with it in my teens after playing a computer role-playing game called Wasteland (which, as you might guess, is the inspiration for the title). Then, years later, another game came along called Fallout--which was and still is one of the best games I've ever played; it was the brilliant narrative of that one that inspired me to seek out post-apocalyptic fiction. So I tracked down and read a bunch of the classics, like A Canticle for Leibowitz and Earth Abides, then went out in search of some of the more obscure works, and came across great stuff like The Long Tomorrow, No Blade of Grass, and The Long Loud Silence.

I’ve interviewed a few authors but this is the first interview I’ve done with an editor of a short story collection. Could you tell me a little bit about the process you had to go through to put ‘Wastelands’ together? Did you have an idea about specific stories that you wanted to be included or did you ask writers to submit work that they thought was suitable?

Well, after reading the abovementioned titles, it became harder to find books on the subject, and so I decided to write an article on the sub-genre, which required tons of research. (I figured if I was going to do the research anyway, I might as well write an article based on it and get paid for it!) In the end, it served me quite well when the time came to put the anthology proposal together; when the time came to do that, I put down most of the table of contents right off the top of my head.
Other than that, I just talked to my friends and colleagues and solicited recommendations from them. Also, once word got out that I'd sold the anthology, I had a few authors approach me to point out that they had stories on the subject I should consider.
There's a bit more to the process than that, of course. Once you settle on a table of contents, you have to contact all of the authors (or their agents) to negotiate permission to reprint the stories. Then, once you secure permission for all the stories, you have to set the order of the stories, which can be a lot like putting together a puzzle. And in the case of Wastelands, I had to write the introduction, write the header notes to all of the stories, and finally assemble the "For Further Reading" appendix.

If you had to live through the aftermath of one of the apocalypses covered in this book which one would it be?

It would have to be the apocalypse depicted in Jerry Oltion's "Judgment Passed." In that story, it seems like the world was left in pretty decent shape after the apocalypse--no irradiated wastelands or crazed mutants to deal with, no plague to worry about. Also, no angry biker gangs plotting to steal your fuel. On the other hand, it might be a bit lonely, and it might suck if you didn't get along with any of the few people that you were stuck on the planet with. Or maybe the one in "When Sysadmins Ruled the Earth." I mean, if the end of the world comes, and the internet is still working, it couldn't be all bad, could it?

What do you think would be the worst, of these apocalypses, to have to go through?

Hmm, I don't know. They'd all be pretty awful. Maybe John Langan's apocalypse in "Episode Seven." There's all kinds of crazy stuff going on there. I mean, those giant mutant dogs? I wouldn't want to have to deal with those things. I'm also tempted to say Elizabeth Bear's apocalypse in "And the Deep Blue Sea," but I don't want to explain why because doing so would kind of spoil the story.

Does putting together a collection like this make you consider investing in a well-stocked bomb shelter for your garden?

Not really. I guess I'm not that convinced that those bomb shelters would actually be much good. In post-apocalyptic fiction, almost no one who survives does so because they hid out in a bomb shelter. Plus, I don't know that I could stand being cooped up in one of those things for however long you'd need to stay in there. I'd love to have access to one of those big underground Vaults like they have in Fallout, though.

Now you’ve got the finished article in your hand, do any of the stories stand out for you? This could be in terms any that you particularly enjoyed reading or in terms of what you had to do before they could be included in the book?

As editor, it's not really fair for me to single out favourites; these stories are like my children, so I love them all equally. However, though this is a reprint anthology, a few of the stories were actually written at my request. Before I sold Wastelands, I had been trying to sell an anthology of all-original post-apocalyptic fiction. In the course of doing that, I had gotten in touch with several authors to get commitments from them before sending the proposal around to publishers. Carol Emshwiller was one of those authors, and she wrote "Killers" for me, which was great. She didn't need to do that--at that time, I was only getting authors to agree to contribute something at some point--but she got the urge to write the story, so she did. And she let me hold onto it for quite a while as I shopped the anthology around. Eventually, after many rejections, I decided the original anthology was a lost cause, and released the story back to Carol, at which point she sold it to F&SF.
John Langan also wrote "Episode Seven" because of that proposed anthology, though by the time he finished writing it, I had already given up on the project, so it went right to F&SF. Dale Bailey was one of the other authors I had talked to, and some time after, he submitted "The End of the World as We Know It" to F&SF. That story might not have specifically been written for me, but it seems likely that me talking to him planted the seed in his head.
And of course, Jerry Oltion's story is the one original story in the book, and has been singled out by many reviewers as one of the best, so I'm proud to have included it.

In your introduction, you mention that the aftermath of alien/zombie invasion is apocalyptic but is a subject for another anthology. Is this something that you can see yourself working on in the future? I’m hoping you’ll say ‘yes’, as I love zombie stories!

Well, okay: Yes. My next reprint anthology--which I'm putting the finishing touches on now--is in fact a zombie anthology. I haven't made all my final selections for that one yet, but I do have several authors already lined up, such as Stephen King, George R. R. Martin, Clive Barker, Laurell K. Hamilton, Neil Gaiman, and several others. It's tentatively titled The Living Dead and is scheduled for publication by Night Shade Books in September or October 2008. It's going to be a big book--in the neighbourhood of 230,000 words--and it's been a lot of fun assembling it.

You also question whether the resurgence in post-apocalyptic fiction is due, in any way, to similarities between people’s reactions to the Cold War era and today’s political climate. You don’t answer this particular question though… Would you say that this resurgence is, in any part, due to this?

I don't know, but that's my theory, anyway. I don't think it's a coincidence that there's this big upsurge in the popularity of post-apocalyptic fiction while at the same time tensions around the world make it feel like we're sitting on a powder keg ready to explode.

You provide a selected bibliography, of post-apocalyptic fiction, at the back of the book. If you met someone who hadn’t read anything in this genre, where would you recommend that they start on this list?

That's a good question. The bibliography is rather lengthy, almost so long you might not know where to start. I'll echo some of what I said earlier. I'd suggest reading A Canticle for Leibowitz, Earth Abides, No Blade of Grass, The Long Loud Silence, The Long Tomorrow, and in that order--that's my personal post-apocalyptic top five. Then you'd have to check out some John Wyndham--either Re-Birth (a/k/a The Chrysalids) or Day of the Triffids. Definitely some Octavia Butler--maybe Parable of the Sower, and The Stand by Stephen King.

Finally, do you have any words of advice for people who are considering how they would survive in a post-apocalyptic environment?

Only this: Don't turn to me for advice; if the apocalypse comes, I'm sure to perish.

Thanks for your time John, I really appreciate it.

Author Interview! Jeffrey Overstreet

Every year there's guaranteed to be at least one book that you won't have planned to pick up but will end up becoming a personal favourite. I had a couple of these last year and one of them was Jeffrey Overstreet's debut fantasy novel 'Auralia's Colors'. Instead of telling you about it all over again, I'll just point you at my Review . I think it's definitely one to read if you get the chance.
I got the chance to ask Jeffrey some questions about 'Auralia's Colors' and here's what he had to say...

When I first realised that ‘Auralia’s Colors’ had been written by a Christian author my first thought was that “there’s allegory in there somewhere…” I couldn’t see any though, did I miss something?

No, you didn’t miss anything.
Tolkien was a Christian author, but he didn’t write allegory. From Flannery O’Connor to Annie Dillard to Stephen Lawhead—there are plenty of Christians who gave us literature rather than lessons. And I find that inspiring. Allegories can be engaging, but they’re like codes. Once you’ve broken the code, and figured what each symbol or character represents, what’s left?
I believe any writer expresses something of what he or she believes about the world, about good and evil, about spiritual matters, whether they like it or not.
And I’m sure that my own faith influences my storytelling. But I’m not interested in writing allegories. I write a story to discover something, to explore, to play — not to disguise some pre-determined message. Where would the fun be in that?

For people who haven’t read the book yet, could you briefly say what it’s all about? This is your opportunity to really plug your book!

Here’s how it starts:
Two cantankerous thieves are doing hard labor out in the wilderness to pay off their debt to the kingdom of House Abascar, when they stumble onto an abandoned child.
She’s lying in a footprint... a big footprint. They bring her back into the society of crooks, where she grows up manifesting strange and artistic powers, and suggesting that a mysterious, mythical creature might have something to do with her inspiration. Her name is Auralia, and her mastery of color reveals wonders no one seen before.
This is a problem: House Abascar has tough restrictions on color. In fact, the common Housefolk live in an almost-colorless society. Auralia’s work stirs up rebellion as they remember what their greedy king and queen have taken. And her colors upset the balance of power in the kingdom.
The king must decide whether to imprison her, cast her back outside the protection of the walls to live with the criminals, or execute her. But he’s distracted by trouble stirred up by savage creatures called “beastmen” in the wilderness beyond the walls. Ultimately, Auralia’s colors throw House Abascar into a violent turmoil that will claim many lives and change the course of history... not just in Abascar, but all four houses of the Expanse.

I felt that ‘Auralia’s Colors’ had a real fairytale feel to it, both through the language and the content. A lot of fantasy these days has a more edgy and gritty tone to it, what made you decide against taking this route with ‘Auralia’s Colors’?

Well, to be frank, I don’t read a lot of contemporary fantasy. I miss the sense of wonder that I felt reading fairy tales when I was a kid.
So much of modern fantasy feels like it’s just another version of The Lord of the Rings. Or else it feels like the author is striving to be draw attention to his showmanship and audacity, rather than drawing us all into a sense of wonder. Much of it feels like a contest to see who can write the darkest, most disturbing material. And it often feels driven by distracting agendas—take Philip Pullman, and his Christianity-bashing heroes, or various Christian stories that feel more like advertisements for Jesus.
I don’t go to fantasy to discover Tolkien wannabes, or for the ugliness, or for lectures. I’m looking for the kind of story that will dazzle all ages. I go to fantasy for encounters with something truly mysterious and enchanting. My life has enough trouble in it, so I’m looking for beauty rather than just another epic battle between monsters. Now, don’t get me wrong: I do have a huge library of favorite fantasy stories. But when I want grit, I’ll read Cormac McCarthy.
When I want inspiration, I’ll go back to Tolkien, or re-read Richard Adams’ Watership Down, T.H. White’s The Once and Future King, Mark Helprin’s Winter’s Tale, Mervyn Peake’s Gormenghast stories, or Patricia McKillip’s The Book of Atrix Wolfe. These stories all have elements of fairy tales, but they also have musical, wondrous language that I find inspiring. I wanted to write something that readers would want to read out loud.

Can you see yourself sticking to the same kind of tone or can you see a darker edge appearing in future books?

Auralia’s Colors takes us to some dark places. Maugam the jailer, who haunts that passages beneath House Abascar... he gives me nightmares.
But Auralia’s Colors focuses on Auralia, who’s very young, and the ale boy, who’s even younger. That brings a sort of “lightness” to the story. The beastman are fearsome monsters, but they’re in the background, in the shadows.
In Cyndere’s Midnight, a beastman is one of the two main characters, and we follow him into the heart of the world of beastmen. So naturally, it’s going to take us into grim and troubling places. But don’t worry. We’re not abandoning the other characters.

Out of all the things a King could outlaw in his Kingdom I wouldn’t have put colour at the top of the list. What made you decide that it would be colour that was to be outlawed?

The story was inspired by a question about what happens to people when they stop caring about creativity and imagination. I was talking with Anne, my girlfriend at the time, about our strange mutual devotion to fairy tales. We wondered why so many adults “outgrow” them, and brush them aside as “kids’ stuff.”
We were hiking in Montana, near Flathead Lake—an incredibly colourful place. I started imagining what it might be like to live in a kingdom that outlawed creative expression. The first thing that struck me was that this society in my imagination was almost colorless. The story revealed itself from there.
And here’s the happy ending: Anne and I kept talking about fairy tales, and now we’ve been married for eleven years.

It’s an old adage that writers write about what ‘they know’. Did Auralia’s use of colour, as rebellion against her society, stem from any similar feelings in yourself?

Well, I don’t think I’d characterize Auralia as “rebellious against” so much as “passionate to inspire.” She was not part of Abascar’s society to begin with. She’s an outsider who has been dragged into House Abascar by their authorities, because they want what she has, but they also want to force her into conformity with their standards. And the truth of what she does, and who she is, clashes with that, because it shows people there is so much more that they need.
And yes, I can relate. For various reasons. I grew up in a particularly stifling community where art was—and still is—viewed with suspicion and condemnation. I was influenced by those standards. But I longed for the beauty and the wild truth I saw reflected in art and nature. I was like the folks in Abascar who get a glimpse of Auralia’s colors.
Since I grew up in a Christian community, some might jump to the conclusion that I think Christianity is a corrupting and stifling influence. But I don’t think it’s Christianity that stifles art. In fact, art and nature both affirm and increase my faith.
No, I think that fear within any community or institution can lead to suffocating restrictions. Art at its best reveals glory and mystery, and that’s an unsettling thing. It humbles us. It shatters our preconceptions. And that makes many people uncomfortable, so they try to organize it in a way that allows them to have control. When they do that, the art becomes something less. It becomes an expression of themselves, not of something higher. I’m in search of revelation, not a sales pitch.
The story is about more than that. But that is one of the reasons that I resonate with Auralia’s story. And I guess I relate more to the people of Abascar than to Auralia, for whom revelation seems as effortless as breathing.

I’ve read that your wife is a poet, what affect does this have on the language that you use in your own work?

It means I have an observant editor right in my own home! While I tend to produce many pages of text very quickly, Anne helps me slow down and pay attention to every word. Her poems sound musical to me, and that inspires me to pay attention to the rhythms of my own writing. Her poems have a strong sense of “place,” and that inspires me to pay attention to the environments of my stories. The places end up participating in the story as actively as characters.
And then there’s the fact that I think she’s beautiful. And beauty tends to inspire writers to write.

You don’t just write fantasy, you’re also a film critic. Which of these came first for you? Was it much of a jump from one to the other?

I started writing fantasy stories when I was about seven. I started writing movie and music reviews in my diary at around ten. So, no, it wasn’t much of a jump. They’ve both been part of my writing life for as long as I can remember.
The challenge is not to let the work I do as a critic make me too critical during the creative work. It’s hard work to silence your inner “censor” and just imagine wild and crazy things until you find that one idea that you love. But the critical work does help me later in the creative process, when I start thinking about editing, and about eliminating what is unnecessary to the story and the vision.

Staying in ‘film critic mode’, are there any films in particular that you recommend we all go and see this year?

I’ve just posted my list of favourites from 2007 at lookingcloser.org, so you’ll find about twenty or thirty recommendations there. But we’re in 2008 now, and there are some new releases I’m excited about seeing, like U23D, and 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days. But I’m so busy trying to finish Cyndere’s Midnight that I’m not allowing myself any moviegoing for a while.


What are you reading at the moment and why do you think I should read it too?

At the moment? Well, I’m reading the sequel to Auralia’s Colors! And I’m still finding plenty of paragraphs that need some polishing.
But seriously, it always helps me to revisit works by Mark Helprin, Patricia McKillip, Cormack McCarthy, and other favourite writers just to get good language running through my head. It gives me a standard to reach for.

Can you tell us anything about ‘Cyndere’s Midnight’ (the next book in the sequence)?

I’ve been spending a lot of time with this story, and I’m excited about all of the new adventures that the ale boy is experiencing, along with the large cast of new characters who are the focus of the book: Cyndere, the heiress to the throne of House Bel Amica; Jordam, a murderous beastman; Ryllion, a soldier who is zealous in his faith, and who follows it to extraordinary decisions; Emeriene, who is Cyndere’s closest friend, and whose loyalties are divided. And then, of course, we’ll learn more about Auralia, Scharr ben Fray, Cal-raven, and, yes, Krawg and Warney.
The book began as an idea inspired by Beauty and the Beast. But this version has two beauties, and quite a few characters who could qualify as “beasts.”

Thanks for your time Jeffrey, it's been great talking to you.

If you want to find out more about Jeffrey Overstreet and his books, take a look at his website Looking Closer.

Author Interview! Brian Keene...

Over the last couple of years Brian Keene has become one of my favourite authors of horror fiction. This is a guy who doesn't just have zombies invade your hometown, he gives them the ability to drive tanks at the same time! There's a lot more to him than just that though. I've described him elsewhere as a heady mix of fear and gore and I reckon that's the best way to describe his work. You can tell I'm a real fan (I've reviewed Dark Hollow and Dead Sea on the blog) so I jumped at the chance to ask Brian a few questions. Without further ado, here they are...

Graeme: Hi Brian, thanks for agreeing to do this interview!

Brian: My pleasure. Thanks for having me.

G: Your latest book ‘Dark Hollow’ has also been published as ‘The Rutting Season’. It’s a great book but why the re-release? Are there any differences between the two novels?

B: There are no differences other than the title change, which was done from a marketing standpoint—the general thinking is that ‘Dark Hollow’ will appeal to mass market consumers more than ‘The Rutting Season’ would. Same thing happened with The Conqueror Worms. The original title, in hardcover, was Earthworm Gods.

G: Without going into too much detail the ending is a bit of a cliffhanger. Are you going to leave the ending open or can you see yourself referring to it in a future book?

B: I don’t know if it’s really a cliff-hanger. If you read the last entry in the character’s diary (which occurs earlier in the book) then the ending sort of dovetails into that. But just in case readers don’t figure it out, yes, there is a sequel of sorts coming out in August. That’s called Ghost Walk, and it basically picks up a few years after the events in Dark Hollow.

G: Anyone who has been following your work will have seen the gradual revealing of your ‘Labyrinth’ mythos and ‘Dark Hollow’ is no exception. How would you describe it to someone who hasn’t read your books? Any new teasers for those of us who have?

B: The Labyrinth is the overall mythos connecting all of my books and stories. Many readers probably didn't even realize that they are connected, and that's good. This was done on purpose. New readers should not have to read Ghoul to understand Dead Sea, or The Rising to understand The Conqueror Worms. The inherent danger in a mythos is that you risk turning off new readers who would otherwise try your work. Therefore, knowledge of one of my books is not required to enjoy another. And yet, the connections are there—I just keep them subtle.

In a nutshell, the Labyrinth is an other-dimensional space used by many of the supernatural beings in my books. The Labyrinth is a way of travelling through time and space, between worlds, and between those world's alternate realities. Humans view it as a maze, because that is the only way they can comprehend it, but it is really much more than that. Think of it as a series of back alley short cuts through the universe.

G: Is ‘Dark Hollow’ a good place for a new reader to get started with your books or would you recommend another one?

B: It’s the perfect jumping on book. No knowledge of previous titles are required, and in truth, I’m really proud of the writing in it. When I go back and re-read the book, it doesn’t make me cringe. (laughs)

G: There’s a lot of apocalyptic stuff happening in your books, how does it feel going to a place (in real life) that you’ve had torn to pieces by zombies or overrun by giant worms in one of your books? Have you ever looked at a building and thought, “I had the Leviathan destroy that”?

B: (Laughs) I have! You know the disaster-proof skyscraper in City of the Dead? In real life, that’s the offices of my publisher, Leisure Books. So every time I visit there, I picture an army of zombie encircling the building. And the destruction of downtown Baltimore in Dead Sea is another fun one—I visit Baltimore quite often. Now, every time I’m at the Inner Harbor, I picture it in flames.

G: I was first introduced to your books when I picked up a copy of ‘The Rising’. What made you decide to write a book about zombies that could make wisecracks, operate heavy machinery and use machineguns?

B: Well, at the time, it had been about ten years since the genre had seen a zombie book. The last two really good ones were Phil Nutman’s Wetwork and Skipp and Spector’s Book of the Dead 1 and 2. So I thought it might be time for a zombie resurgence (boy, was I right about that!) I wanted to do something a little different, rather than just repeating what had been done before.

G: ‘The Rising’ was originally going to be a standalone book but fan feedback led to you writing ‘City of the Dead’. Looking back, are you glad you did this or do you think it would have been better left alone?

B: I am glad I did it. I didn’t want to, at first, but in hindsight, it was a fun book to write, and I think it gave both readers and myself a sense of closure.

G: Are we ever going to see anything more of Ob or is that one part of the Labyrinth that is now closed?

B: I’m sure you’ll see him again. He popped up in two recent short stories, “The Resurrection and the Life” and “The Siqqusim Who Stole Christmas”. He’s inarguably one of my most popular monsters, and I still find him fun to write about, so I’m sure I’ll use him on occasion.

G: What’s it like hanging out with other horror writers? Do you have competitions to see who can scare the others the most?

B: Not really. I’m lucky enough to live near several other horror writers—J.F. Gonzalez, Geoff Cooper, Robert Ford, Thomas Montelone, Chet Williamson, Richard Chizmar, James Kidman, and several others. That’s nice, because many authors only get to stay in contact with their peers through the internet or at conventions. I have the luxury of seeing my friends more often than that. But I guess we’re just like anyone else. Maybe we get a few beers, go target shooting, or just hang out and talk shop.

G: There’s a lot of genres for a writer to work in, what made you decide to go with horror?

B: I’ve been a fan of the genre since I was a kid, so I guess it was natural that I gravitated towards it in my professional life. I’m still a fan. I consider myself a fan before I consider myself a practitioner. Hopefully, I never lose that sense.

G: A number of your books have been optioned for film and video game treatment. Are there any developments in this area that you can tell us? I would love to see ‘The Rising’ on the big screen…

B: The Rising is slated for an October 2009 release, although with the current WGA strike, I’m sure that will change. City of the Dead, Ghoul, and Terminal have also all been optioned, and are in various stages of development.

G: I want to buy a horror book by someone who isn’t Stephen King etc. Recommend me someone good!

B: To avoid leaving somebody out, I’ll limit myself to ten suggested authors, all of whom are newer and definitely worth checking out: Sarah Langan, Greg Gifune, Bryan Smith, Mary SanGiovanni, Nate Southard, Wrath James White, Nate Kenyon, Brian Knight, Mehitobel Wilson, and Brett McBean.

G: Finally, this isn’t a question it’s your chance to introduce your work to people who may not have heard of it. Go for it! (Sorry, I forgot to mention that you’re only allowed twenty words tops…)

I can do it in less than twenty... (clears throat)www.briankeene.com

G: Thanks again Brian, it’s been great talking to you.

B: The pleasure was all mine! Thanks.

Questions and Answers: Michael Moorcock

Remy, over at The Fantasy Review recently interviewed Michael Moorcock for the release of his new book 'The Metatemporal Detective'. Not only did Remy conduct a great interview (check it out!) but he also let me sneak a few of my questions in as well. Without further ado, here they are...

Q: In the forewords of your 'Eternal Champion' series, you've mentioned that some of these tales were written in a matter of days (sometimes hours), is this still the case with your recent works? When was the last time you wrote an entire book over the course of a weekend?

No. It takes much longer now I’m off my drugs of choice (coffee and sugar). But I still work pretty quickly. The latest Elric novella only took three or four days. My books used to take me three days, working nine to six with an hour off for lunch. By the 1970s I was taking five or six days. By the late 80s it had become a matter of weeks. Gloriana, for instance, took six weeks.
Then by 1979, doing something really ambitious like Byzantium Endures, I took 6 months. The most recent Elric books took around a month a piece. Originally, I did one draft and never reread. I’d pay a friend to read the manuscript for any mistakes then send it straight to the publisher. As a result I’ve never read most of my own books. These days, I tend to do a second draft.

Q: Some fantasy authors (naming no names) have run into difficulties dealing with the sheer size of their cast of characters. This can result in a series that runs far longer than planned and mostly deals with needless minutiae in order to tie up plot strands. Your body of work has continuity that stretches back around forty years with a large number of recurring characters. Do you feel that you have managed to avoid these pitfalls?
I hope so, because I tend to think in terms of characters and have most of them as ‘personalities’ in my head. That’s how I can usually keep the stories in my head.

Q: The last couple of years, in particular, have seen a number of debut fantasy authors whose work has met with acclaim. Did any of these authors catch your eye? Which (if any) would you recommend to someone picking up a fantasy book for the first time?
I like China Mieville, Storm Constantine, Steve Aylett, Jeffrey Ford, Jeff VanderMeer, K.L.Bishop, Steve Redwood, Holly Black, all of whom I think are superb. I’d also recommend Michael Chabon’s recent work as well as Walter Mosley’s imaginative fiction.

Q: One of my favourite books, of yours, was the 'Nomad of the Time Streams', I found the satire insightful and the use of certain political figures (in different situations) an eye-opener. What kind of lessons would Oswald Bastable learn if he were to find himself in today's world? What 'world figures' might he meet and what would you have them do?

Well, I think I’ve shown that in The Metatemporal Detective. Those stories, in tone and intention, are pretty close to what I was doing, I think, in Nomad. I’m very glad you saw those books for what they were intended to do, since some people just saw them as ‘cool airship stories’ as it were. Most of the imitators of those stories haven’t used the technique for what it was originally intended to do. Begg and Bastable are close cousins!

Q: It's the night before 'The Metatemporal Detective' is released. Will you still feel nervous about how it's received or did that feeling vanish a long time ago?

I have that feeling occasionally, especially when an ambitious literary novel, like Vengeance of Rome, is coming out, because they tend to get many more reviews in the regular press. But I’ll be in Paris when TMD comes out and I probably won’t remember the actual date. I’m still pleased, though, if I get good reviews and unhappy if I get bad ones! I do still care about how a book’s received, though I know it makes very little difference to sales and so on.

Q: Are there any little 'rituals' that you always adhere to on the day a book of yours is published (slap up meal, smoke a huge cigar etc)? What will you be doing on the day that 'The Metatemporal Detective' is released?
Well, now you mention it, I think I’ll have a slap up meal, since I WILL be in Paris and any excuse is a good one. Indeed, I’d like to arrange some sort of launch party in Paris for the book. We’ll see if that’s possible.

Q: Your more 'fantastical' works inevitably tie into the all-encompassing multi-verse and 'The Metatemporal Detective' looks to be no exception. Bearing this in mind, would you recommend 'The Metatemporal Detective' to someone who is reading your work for the first time?
Yes, I think I would. It’s a book I’ll probably give the guys at my local Post Office for Christmas. It’s a great PO and I always try to say thank you in some way. It’s a book I’d offer someone who said they didn’t know my stuff.

Q: Finally, Elric, Corum and Dorian Hawkmoon go out for a few drinks. By the end of the evening, which one…
i) Will have been arrested?
ii) Will have made a move on someone else’s girlfriend?
iii) Will be drunkenly holding forth on a topic they know absolutely nothing about?
Good heavens! These guys are HEROES! They take themselves far too seriously for that. And also they are either very happily married or are mourning some lady they’ve lost or accidentally killed. And they’re too laconic to hold forth on a subject they know nothing about.
Their CREATOR on the other hand might not behave quite so well. So the answer to all three questions is ME...

Interview with Mike Carey

I’ve heard tales about people paying large amounts of money (at charity auctions) to have their name, or description; appear in their favourite author’s book. Would you consider doing something similar and how much would I have to pay you to have my name appear in the next Felix Castor book?
It’s something I used to do way back when I was writing the Lucifer monthly series. There were a whole group of people who were posting regularly on the Vertigo message board, and we had this running gag going that it was a High School (Morningstar High) and I was the head master. I would set them ‘homework’ assignments, for example write Lucifer’s reply to Isaiah’s “Oh how art thou fallen from Heaven, O Lucifer son of the morning”. They would post their entries and I would choose a winner and the winner each month would get to nominate a word that would then go in the next month’s issue. I had to keep my fingers crossed that they wouldn’t choose anything too obscene or too ridiculous that would skew the whole storyline around it. But in fact – and probably inevitably – what everyone did was send in their names as their nominated word and we would somehow work it into the dialogue or the artwork. Sometimes I would name a character after them or sometimes their name would appear as graffiti on a wall. So it is something I have done but not for money: it’s a nice little nod that you can give to a friend.
I can say from personal experience, though, that if you name a character after someone you know, you should have due regard to that character’s ultimate fate. People don’t like watching their namesakes come to sticky ends.

We’re now halfway through the Felix Castor series and the first thing I noticed about the book was that the style of the cover had changed! What happened there?
Halfway through a planned six-book sequence – not necessarily through the entire series.What happened was that we looked at the original designs, which we were always very happy with, because we thought they very cleverly wove in a lot of different elements from the books, which they do! But we realised once we’d been through two variations of the theme that they actually work better once you’d read the book. You come to realise why there are musical notes there, why there are Cyrillic characters and so on. They play off the story, but they play off the story in ways that you need to be familiar with the story to understand. What we wanted was a cover design that would clue you in a bit more up front, as it were; that would make a statement about the themes, the material and the approach. We went for this photographic design as it tells you a lot about Castor, the London setting and the mix of supernatural and noir elements. In that sense we figured it would be a more effective statement.
Do you see yourself sticking with that format for the rest of the series?The plan is to stick with that style and when the first two books come up for reprint they’ll be issued with similar covers as well.

You’ve obviously done a lot of research into the darker side of London and your work has a really gritty and spine-chilling feel to it. Have you ever written something so scary that you’ve scared yourself out of going back to that place in real life?
I guess I don’t associate the material strongly enough with a place that the place itself would come to have negative overtones for me. But there are themes and events that when I put them into a book can be emotionally difficult for me to deal with. The first Castor novel had the sexual violence in it which was probably the darkest and most upsetting thing I’ve ever written. Those scenes do stay with you, all the more probably because they’re based on real life experience. Not mine or anyone I’ve known but they’re based on things I’ve read about in relation to people trafficking and they do leave an emotional imprint on you that can take days or weeks to shake off. In that sense you do get a psychic hangover from writing horror.

Is there anything you’ve ever come across, during your research, where you’ve just thought, “There’s no way that would ever go in a book of mine”?No, I’ve never come across anything that I would flatly refuse to put into a book but I became aware after writing ‘Devil You Know’ and ‘Vicious Circle’ that there was a pattern beginning to form of women as victims. You have the faceless ghost in the first book and the ghost of Abbie Torrington in the second book who are both victim figures and their role in the book is largely a passive one. That’s not 100% true of Abbie as her ghost has a part to play in the climax of the second book, but I did feel when I came to write ‘Dead Men’s Boots’ that I wanted to break away from that. I didn’t want it to become a defining feature of the stories as it too often is in horror. Obviously Juliet is a more positive female role model, and a much more active character, but I wanted to work the changes on that. If there’s a victim figure in Dead Men’s Boots it’s John Gittings, the dead exorcist.

There’s a lot of dark and quite evil stuff happening in both the Felix Castor and Hellblazer books. How do you switch off from that when you’ve finished writing for the day? Are you tempted to write something really sweet and wholesome just to balance it out?
Hey, I do write sweet and wholesome stuff. Recently, over the last three or four years, I’ve been writing romantic teen fiction for DC (most recently for their Minx imprint) which is to some extent an antidote to some of this dark stuff. Thinking about it, though - and I don’t know whether it’s being a writer or being a man – but there’s a certain kind of schizophrenia that you can achieve sometimes which can be very useful. You can come from writing Castor, Lucifer or Hellblazer and describing scenes of torture, horror and despair to chatting with the kids about their day at school and stuff. And sometimes, despite what I said earlier about psychic hangovers, sometimes you really can just leave all that stuff behind you on the desk. My wife can’t do that at all. She’s also a writer but finds if she gets herself into a certain mood, because of a scene she’s writing in the book, it sticks with her and she’s trapped in that mood and she can’t dislocate. I find it easy to jump from one psychic plane to another and I think that suggests I’m a much less healthy individual, psychologically speaking, than she is…

One of the recurring themes I’ve noticed, so far, is that the only luck Felix seems to have is when a case starts to go his way, the rest of the time he’s a mess. Is it more fun writing about a character who has to look up to see rock bottom?
Chris Claremont, the man who reinvented the X-Men and turned it into the massive franchise it is today, was once asked for the recipe for a great comic book. He said it was really easy: you basically take a group of nice amiable people and then you put them through Hell. I think extremes are always more interesting and it’s always easier to sympathise with someone who has reached the bottom of the heap than someone who is richer than you, luckier with you and so on. I think this is a problem, for example, with the Alex Ryder books. They’re a hell of a lot fun to read but the trouble is he’s too perfect. Things go his way too much. I like losers, I like loners, I like people who get shat on by life. I think they’re more fun to write about and more fun to read.

I mentioned, on the SFX Forum, that I’d be talking to you and one of the ladies there said that you’re her favourite author and she happens to have a little crush on Felix Castor (and was wondering if this is normal!) Do you think there’s anything loveable about Felix Castor?
Yeah I think so. Maybe. At rock bottom he is a guy who is trying to do the right thing even though life doesn’t always let him, and he often suffers as a result. He’s somebody who’s done awful things to his friends and the people who love him – sometimes consciously – but he carries the weight of that guilt around with him. It’s something that makes it easy to sympathise with him as he can’t walk away from the consequences of his actions, he’s haunted by his past in that way. I also think that his wit, his sharp tongue is attractive. Felix is an ironic and humorous commentator on the things that go on around him and I enjoy that aspect of his voice, the fact that he’s sardonic and he always has a wisecrack and the perfect putdown. Characters who are verbally skilled are interesting and attractive for that reason I think.
A character in a book is only going to be interesting if they have something interesting to say.
Did you ever have an encounter and then as you replay it in your mind give yourself all the best lines, like ‘I wish I’d said that and that’? Well, Castor is a wish fulfilment figure on that level only; he always has the comeback ready.

In ‘Dead Men’s Boots’, Felix finally makes it out of London and across to the US for a brief visit. Other than the case itself, is there any other reason why this happens here?
The real basis for that decision was that I wanted to take Felix and Juliet a long way out of their comfort zone. I wanted them on foreign soil not just in the banal sense but also in the psychological sense. Juliet is very badly affected by that journey: it turns out that she has a cthonic connection to the soil and that flying in an aeroplane is really bad for her so she’s at a disadvantage from the moment that she takes off. It’s a solution to one of the problems you have with Juliet. With her on Castor’s side it’s like he has a nuclear arsenal all of his own. She’s unstoppable normally but in the Alabama scenes she’s only of limited use to him. Castor actually has to rescue her from a fight with a were-creature in which she is outmatched. So it was partly ‘let’s put them in a new situation where a lot of their natural advantages don’t work and let’s see how they cope with that’ and partly ringing the changes on the formula. If you keep on doing the same thing one book after the other then it stops being fun, you have to keep pushing the envelope.

The first exposure Felix has to his exorcist abilities is when, as a child, he sings away the ghost of his sister. By the time of ‘The Devil You Know’ Felix is questioning where the souls go once they’ve been exorcised. Is this something you will let the reader know or will it be left open ended?
There’s never going to be a categorical answer but you find out an awful lot more. We find out more about why the dead are rising and we find out more about the mechanics of all the phenomena in Castor’s world. There’s actually a big revelation which I’m planning for the sixth book which will make sense of an awful lot of things that people already think they understand. It will be a case of ‘ah but, there is also this’, another level to everything that’s happening which will make you see it in a different light. It's kind of like the ending of Apocalypto where the hero makes it to the coast… I’m trying not to spoil the film here, but you know what I’m referring to. It’s a change of perspective on everything that we’ve seen so far.

Is it set in stone that the Felix Castor series will only be six books long?
No, not at all. It’s just that I’m consciously planning up to the climax of the sixth book which, to some extent, is the climax of everything that has happened before. And while there’s an inexorable build to this one moment, this one reveal, it doesn’t have to be the ending. At this point, you realise for the first time exactly what’s happening and exactly what’s at stake but the series could carry on.

You’re an incredibly busy man, not just with Felix Castor but also with various comic book projects. When you have an idea for a project, how do you decide whether it’s better suited to graphic novel or straight novel format?
Wow… In some cases there’s one obvious element that organises everything else around itself. I pitched the Castor books as a novel series for an awful lot of reasons, the one reason why you couldn’t do the Castor books as a comic (I don’t think) is because of the music. Castor exorcises ghosts through music and this is notoriously difficult to do effectively in a graphic media. How would you do it? Notes on a page? You could maybe do it as a visual effect but something would be missing because you couldn’t hear or describe the music. In other cases it’s a question of where you are when you start the story, you may be thinking of it as a comic straight out of the gate. Some stories translate effectively into any media and it doesn’t matter where you start with them. I don’t know, you have to be prepared to follow an idea wherever it takes you and that could be a million miles away from where you started when it first hits you.

Would you like to see the Felix Castor books become a movie or a TV series?
A TV series allows you to do a lot more in terms of developing the world. A movie is like a short story whereas a TV series is a novel. I’ve got a lot of respect for TV dramas, in fact a lot of what I watch is TV drama. It seems to me that the more formulaic and predictable Hollywood movies become, the more varied and wonderful American TV dramas becomes. Don’t get me wrong, I would love to see a Castor movie because it would be a massive way of getting more people to read the books if nothing else and it would be an exciting departure for me creatively.

You’ve worked on X-Men, Ultimate Fantastic Four and Neil Gaiman’s ‘Neverwhere’ amongst other comics. If you had the chance to work on any other comic book character who would you choose? The only character I’ve had a real hankering to work on (and haven’t been able to make it stick) is Dr Strange, the Sorcerer Supreme and the magical wanderer in the Marvel Superhero universe. I love Dr Strange, going right back to the original Steve Ditko stories. I love him because the approach to magic, in the Dr Strange stories, is so visceral and so visual; you actually have characters duelling with bolts of magic and it is there in front of you on the page. I tried to do something similar in a book called ‘Spellbinders’ (with Mike Perkins) and the approach to magic was nothing to do with spells or magic words. It was just shapes and colours on the page and people who read the series carefully would eventually come to realise what spells were being cast by the shapes and colours that were being used. It becomes a kind of visual shorthand. I have a pitch in at Marvel, with Pablo Raimondi, which basically has Dr Strange losing all of his power and having to learn magics from the ground up, taking him back to square one. It turns him from the Sorcerer Supreme back into the student and he has to put it back together again. It’s a book I’d love to do and Pablo would be a fantastic guy to do it with.

Thanks for your time Mike, it's been great talking with you.

Author Interview - Brian Ruckley

You know how it is, you spend all day waiting for a Brian Ruckley interview and then three turn up at once! Aidan and Chris have already done a couple of really good interviews with Brian, now it's my turn!
So, without further ado...

Hi Brian, thanks for agreeing to take part in this interview, how's life treating you at the moment?
Life is pleasant right now, thank you. Appropriately, as I look out of my window I see blue skies, which in itself is a rare and mood-enhancing sight in the context of the miserable monsoon that has been Britain’s summer. (Later: the world outside has reverted to its 2007 default setting of grey and wet. Someone, somewhere owes us all one summer. Maybe it’ll be delivered next year.)

'Winterbirth' has now been released, in mass market paperback, is there still a little buzz to be had from seeing your book on the shelves or did the trade paperback edition get this out of your system?
I guess seeing the UK hardback in the shops was probably the high point, but there’s still plenty of buzz to be extracted. I assume that at some stage a writer gets used to all this stuff, but for me that stage is still some way off. Plus with the mass market paperback, there’s the whole quantity issue. I don’t think I ever saw more than half a dozen of the hardback gathered in one place in the wild, but I saw an entire pile of paperback Winterbirths in a bookshop the other day. Admittedly it was a smallish pile, but it doesn’t take much to put a smile on the face a new, still vaguely disbelieving author …

You've got to sell your story to a potential reader but I'm afraid you only have ten words to do it in! What are you going to say?
Ancient hatreds, conspiracies, betrayals, scoundrels, heroes, pursuits. No Gods. Snow.

I'm a big fan of the cover for the new edition.If you had to make the choice, which cover (for 'Winterbirth') would you choose as your favourite, trade paperback cover or the new one for the mass market edition?
Yeah, I really like the new cover. I liked the original UK hardback and tpb cover too, though – I thought it was a striking image, with the whole blood on snow thing it had going on. On balance, I guess I’d pick the new edition, as much because I prefer the title font and the way text