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I bought a copy of Troll’s Eye View for myself, then once I’d finished devouring it I shared it with my eleven year-old daughter, Danica. I enjoyed the book so much that I intended to ask the editors, Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling for an interview here at Niteblade, however, when it turned out that Danica loved it too, I got a different idea. I asked Ellen and Terri if they would mind answering a few questions from Danica rather than me. They agreed, thus increasing their level of awesome in my mind.

Danica: Was editing Troll’s Eye View fun? Why?

Ellen: Yes, because working with Terri is always fun and also because pushing our authors to consider the villain’s point of view and so get them to stretch as writers is always fun.

Terri: Editing Troll’s Eye View was loads of fun. I loved fairy tales when I was a kid, and I didn’t stop loving them when I grew up. I went on to study folklore at college, where I discovered that fairy tales have a long and fascinating history. The earliest versions of stories like Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, and Snow White were much darker and stranger than the Disney versions that most people know today — and the heroines tended to be more active, more feisty, and much more clever. The tales aren’t static; they change from century to century as storytellers re-work them for each new generation. By encouraging writers to re-tell fairy tales in Troll’s Eye View and our other fairy tale anthologies, we become part of a tradition that stretches back to the dawn of storytelling itself. I find that very exciting.

Danica: Ellen, if you could work with Terri again would you? Why?

Ellen: Of course! We’ve worked on many many anthologies together and hope to work on many more in the future. And although I prefer horror to fantasy and Terri prefers fantasy to horror, I think we work well together. Unfortunately, we rarely actually see each other in person as she lives in England and Arizona while I live in New York City. But working together keeps our friendship alive and vital.

Danica: Terri, if you could work with Ellen again would you? Why?

Terri: I’ve been editing anthologies with Ellen for over twenty years, and I hope we’ll still be working together in another twenty — not only because we’ve become good friends after all this time, but also because I have enormous respect for her literary acumen and editorial skills. I think our partnership works because we’re so different: Ellen loves horror and dark fantasy, I love myth and high fantasy; she loves everything quirky and strange, I love everything Pre-Raphaelite and romantic; she lives in one of the largest cities in the world, I live in a tiny English village; etc. etc.. We couldn’t be more opposite — which means we bring a broad range of personal tastes into every project we work on together. What we share is a passionate love of short stories, and a belief in the literary possibilities inherent in fantastic fiction.

Danica: If you could be any of the characters from Troll’s Eye View who would you be?

Ellen: Ooooh. I think I’d like to be Jaundice, the witch’s marmalade cat in Garth Nix’s “An Unwelcome Guest.” I love cats and I think it might be fun to be one for a short while.

Terri: Nick in Delia Sherman’s “Wizard’s Apprentice,” because he knows how to turn into a fox! I’d love to be able to be able to do that. There are foxes in the woods behind my house in Devon, and they are such quick, clever, beautiful creatures.

Danica: Who is your favorite fairy tale villain?

Ellen: Rumpelstiltskin because he’s not really a villain at all. He was cheated by the lying princess who broke her promise. In fact, I think a LOT of the supposed “heroines” are the actual villains –The princess in the
Frog Prince who breaks her word–what is it with these twits?

Terri: The villain who has always frightened me the most is Snow White’s wicked step-mother. Beautiful and cold as ice, the Queen not only orders her huntsman to take Snow White into the woods and kill her, but demands he bring back the girl’s heart and liver as proof — and then eats them for dinner! There are lots of nasty step-mothers in fairy tales, but Snow White’s is the creepiest, hands down.

On the other hand, I’ve recently become a step-mother myself, and so I can’t help but wonder if fairy tale step-mothers have simply had a bad rap….

Danica: I don’t think step parents are all that bad Do you write as well as edit? If so, what genre?

Ellen: Nope -at least not fiction. I write the occasional book review or essay.

Terri: Yes. I’ve written fantasy fiction for children, teenagers, and adults, and nonfiction on myth and contemporary mythic arts. I’m also a painter, specializing in imagery based on myth and folklore.

Danica: Thanks  for answering, I really liked the book so please keep editing.

I’ve had the pleasure of working with Christopher Hivner a few times since Niteblade began. Some of his poetry graces our pages and I’ve always found him very personable and easy to work with. When he emailed to ask if one of our reviewers might be interested in taking a look at his short story collection The Spaces Between Your Screams I didn’t hesitate to agree. (Amber’s review appears here) and at the same time asked if he’d be interested in an interview. He said yes. It’s been a while since then, but finally the interview is done and ready to share. Enjoy

First of all, thank you so much for your patience. We’ve been meaning to do this interview for ages, but something always kept coming up on my end that put it off. Do you find that the business of publishing tests your patience on a regular basis? The whole waiting to hear back from publishers, waiting to publish…that sort of thing?

Absolutely. Patience is something I’ve had to learn in all aspects of life, I certainly wasn’t born with it. I started trying to get published around 1992 and had no idea what I was doing or what I was in for. Back then it was looking for the SASEs in the mail and when one showed up it was like Christmas morning. The longest I’ve waited for something to get published was 18 months. It was a poem in a British zine called Krax. They warned me ahead of time it would be a wait so I forgot all about it. When the contributor’s copy appeared in the mail one day I had no idea what it was. The longest response time I’ve had was 2 years and I had already sent a communication to them withdrawing it, submitted it elsewhere, had it accepted and published by the time they told me they weren’t interested. I’ve learned to busy myself with other projects after submitting something so I don’t think about it.

I’m looking at a copy of The Spaces Between Your Screams right now, is this your first short story collection?

Yes, this is my first full length collection of anything. I had a chapbook of mainstream poetry, “Edged in Blue”, published in 2004, but this is my first published full length book. I have enough stories for a 2nd one but they all need edited and revised and I’m still trying to get Spaces out there, so that’s down the road.

People enjoy hearing about how something came to be published. Do you have an interesting story about The Spaces Between Your Screams?

I have a frustrating one that harkens back to the whole patience question. I put The Spaces Between Your Screams together after a 2 year hiatus from writing. I thought the process of compiling the stories and revising them would be a good way of easing back into things. When it was finished the publisher I had been planning on sending it to was out of business. I found another publisher that wanted only a sample of 20 pages which they said they would respond to in a month. 10 months later I got a letter saying they were intrigued and would like to read the whole book so I packed it up and mailed it off, expecting to hear something in 6 months. A year passed and I started sending query letters and emails. Finally one day they answered that they were inundated with submissions and were behind in their reading, but assured me they would get around to my manuscript.

So I waited and waited and waited . . . and waited. I got involved in other things, putting it in the back of my mind and soon another year had passed. More letters and emails went out into the ether and eventually I received this answer: So and So publishing will be going out of business within the month. We have no record of receiving your manuscript or of having ever read it. We apologize for any inconvenience.

I don’t know, is 3 years of my life an inconvenience? After I stopped swearing I sent it to eTreasures Publishing and the publisher, Vickie Kennedy, accepted it in a few weeks. It was published as an ebook in September 2007 and as a paperback in September 2008.

I haven’t finished reading The Spaces Between Your Screams yet but so far one of my favorite stories is Eyes Wide Open. Do you have a favorite story in this collection?

When the Machines Arrive is my favorite. I’m a sucker for a post-apocalyptic story, especially one with no neat and tidy ending. I’ve always figured if the scenario ever plays out for real, we won’t truly understand what happened so why should it be written in a packaged way. Also, I’ve always had this weird fear of a large object falling on me from the sky. I used to lie on the grass as a kid and look at the clouds imagining one descending onto me.

I have a soft spot for Water and Wine as well. I’m not hugely invested in vampires but I like to write humor and it’s a challenge to blend it with another genre.

I’m a big fan of your poetry, Niteblade has been honored to include several of your pieces in the past. Do you occasionally find that something you start writing as a poem instead would work better as a short story or vice versa?

I have definitely taken the poem to story route. Most of my poetry is begun as stream of consciousness and after I hit on something I like then I start shaping it. Because I use a narrative style quite often, many of my pieces could go either way.

I have a stubborn streak so at times I’ll keep trying to force a poem to remain what it began life as, until one day I finally admit that it’s truly awful, but could be a good story.

I don’t remember every turning a story into a poem, but maybe I should take a second look at some of the things in my unfinished pile.

What are you working on now?

Currently I’m the king of the half finished projects. I’m about 37,000 words into a horror novel that started life as a 5000 word short story that wasn’t working. I shortened it to 2000 words and it was worse. One day I hit upon an idea to expand it to novel length and now I’m excited about it if I do it right.

I also have 35 pages finished of a screenplay based on one of my old short stories, The White Line. I would like to put together a collection of my horror poems. I started a preliminary one a few years ago but it needs revised.

I am writing a series of humorous stories based on a fictitious community I created. Not the most original concept I’ll grant you, but I really like the stories and characters that are emerging from it. So far I have 6 stories at about 40,000 words.

What are your plans for the future?

I have several chapbook and full length books of mainstream poetry I’m trying to get published so I will continue that search.

I also started a blog in March called Cosmic Overdrive. I satirize anything in the news that I have a strong opinion about. It’s turned out to be about American politicians 75% of the time because they just keep doing and saying stupid things.

My main focus now is to get word out about The Spaces Between Your Screams. To that end, something I have to do in the near future is overcome a fear of drawing attention to myself. I am an introvert who would like to be similar to the birds I hear every morning in the trees next to my home; they surround me with their songs but I can never see them. In a perfect world for me my writing would make the noise and I would stay unseen in the shadows. That’s unrealistic so I have to learn to deal with attention and sell my work.

Where is the best place for people to get a copy of The Spaces Between Your Screams?

My book can be found at 2 places online:
www.Amazon.com where it is available in paperback and kindle device
www.etreasurespublishing.com where it is available in paperback, ebook or CD-Rom

Where can they find you online?

http://www.squidoo.com/screams is a page I created to advertise The Spaces Between Your Screams. There are excerpts from 3 of the stories in the book, and links to a few of my favorite horror novels and zines. There are also links to some horror-themed t-shirts that my sister and brother and I designed and sell at an online store we run, Yoe Creek Designs .

My blog can be found at http://cosmicoverdrive.blogspot.com

I have just recently joined Facebook. If you search my full name, Christopher Hivner, you will find a page I created where I will be posting anything that has to with my writing.

Thank you so much for taking the time for this interview. Again, I apologise for how long it took for me to get my act in gear. Thank you for giving me your time and allowing me the exposure in Niteblade. Good luck in the future.

It was my distinct pleasure to meet and hang out with Conrad Williams at the World Horror Convention in Winnipeg. I was also lucky enough to be one of the first people to claim a copy of his newest novel, One.  As it turns out he sold out and had to take mail orders, but I snagged one before that happened. It gave me something to read on the plane back to Edmonton, and I devoured it. You can check out my review on my personal blog.

Once I finished the book I shot Conrad an email that sort of said “Hey, can I interview you for Niteblade? Please, pretty please?”

He said yes.

Enjoy

Your work, at least what I’ve read of it, tends to deal a lot with delusions and insanity. Is that something you’ve always been interested in?

I think horror fiction certainly lends itself to these subjects. Insanity certainly hovers at the margins of my latest novel, ONE. It can’t be avoided. End of the world, uncertainty, fear. Insanity can’t be far away. I like to explore the limits of endurance that people suffer before they crack. I think we’re a pretty hardy breed and can deal with most things that nature throws at us, but that borderline where enough is enough, it’s an interesting place to tread, creatively.

When I finish one of your stories, I am compelled to go back and re-read it again. Not because I don’t understand it, but because I feel like there are layers upon layers and that it will take several reads to really excavate them all. Do you know if other people feel that way, or am I over-thinking things a bit?

Readers who are also writers go back over stories they’ve enjoyed or found interesting because they’re fascinated by the craft. They want to see the nuts and bolts, how it’s been done. And also what they might have missed. There may be different levels, there might even be levels that the author wasn’t thinking of when he/she wrote it but the reader interprets for him/herself.

Are the myriad of layers a conscious decision or simply something that comes from your personal writing style and choice of subject matter?

You want the story to be as rich and meaningful as possible, without miring it in too much ambiguity or signposting it to death. I think it’s sometimes best to simply write the story you want to write and hope that any deeper meaning comes about serendipitously.

What writers or books do you think have influenced you the most?

Early Stephen King (The Shining means a lot to me). Peter Straub. Ramsey Campbell. Derek Raymond’s Factory novels. Treasure Island. Graham Greene. Ray Bradbury. Patrick McGrath. Christopher Priest. M John Harrison. JG Ballard… Too many to mention, really.

Who is the favorite character you’ve ever created. Why?

I quite like MacCreadle, who appeared in the first story I sold to an anthology. He played a major role in my first novel, Head Injuries, and has had a cameo in each of the novels I’ve written since. He’s a mixture of school bully, nightmare legend and tragic failure.

Looking back on your writing career thus far, what are you the most proud of?

I’m honoured to have won a couple of awards. The International Horror Guild Award was special because Stephen King, one of my heroes, was on the shortlist too. Having that thing on my desk is a great confidence booster.

What do you still hope to accomplish?

I want to write lots more novels and stories. I want to be writing into my 70s, like Ray Bradbury and JG Ballard.

Have you any words of advice for aspiring writers?

Never stop. Listen to what is in you. Don’t take no for an answer.

Many writers find writing to be a very solitary and isolating occupation. Do you agree? If so, what do you do in order to counter that?

It’s necessarily solitary. I listen to music while I write. And I make sure I get outside for some fresh air, especially if it isn’t going well.

What is next for you?

Decay Inevitable is published by Solaris in the summer. It’s a story about what goes on at the threshold between life and death. And I’m working on a new novel concerning a pilot and a nurse. That’s all I’m saying!

Thank you so much for the interview Conrad   If anyone is interested in learning more about Conrad and his work you should check out his website by clicking the banner below.

Leslie Ann Moore

I first met Leslie Ann Moore at Fanstory which is a community for writers to give and receive feedback on their work. I always valued every word of critique Leslie offered (she is the person who taught me about passive voice and helped me purge it from my writing). I often felt bad because I wasn’t able to offer any helpful critique of her work, it always seemed so polished! Anyway, she must not have held that against me because now that she’s released the second book from her trilogy she took a few minutes out of her crazy schedule to answer a few of my questions.

I know everyone asks this and I’m afraid I’m not going to be an exception; what inspired you to write the Griffin’s Daughter trilogy?

LOL! It IS a logical first question! The seed idea for GD came to me many years ago in a short story I wrote for a college creative writing class. I’d actually come up with the proto main characters as far back as middle school. I used to make up tales about a young girl and her elven lover to entertain myself while lying in bed at night, waiting to go to sleep. It was all quite romantic in a chaste sort of way back then! Lots of passionate embraces and kissing, but nothing else.

The catalyst for me, the one event that actually got me started writing the trilogy was meeting Terry Brooks, the best-selling fantasy writer. It was at the 2001 Los Angeles Times Festival of Books. He was on a panel with other well-known fantasy writers, talking about how he’d managed to transition his career out of law and into full-time writing. A light bulb went on in my head. Hey, if Terry can do it, why can’t I? When it came time for me to get an autograph from him, as he signed my book, he asked what I did. Instead of saying “I’m a veterinarian”, I said, “I write fantasy, like you.” To this day, I don’t know what made me say that, because I hadn’t actually written anything fiction-wise since college. Terry replied, and I’m paraphrasing here, “Well, don’t ever give up. Keep writing, no matter what.” I know he probably says that to everyone who tells him about their writerly aspirations, but his words just galvanized me! That night, I bought a copy of a book on writing that Terry had recommended in his talk—The Writer’s Journey, by Christopher Vogler—read it from cover to cover over the next two days, then sat at my computer and began the outline that would ultimately become the GD Trilogy.

In reading “Griffin’s Daughter” I was struck by how seamlessly you’d woven the setting through the book. Did you do research to find details to set an authentic tone?

I did a lot of research on both feudal Japan, which the elven society is loosely based on, and ancient Rome and medieval Europe in the immediate post-Roman period, from which I borrowed heavily for the Soldaran Empire. For personal and place names in Alasiri, the elven country, I used real Japanese names and either changed the spellings slightly, or took parts of names and combined them to make a new name. The single exception to that is the name of the elven castle where a lot of the action takes place in the second half of the book. The name Kerala is actually taken from a state in modern India. I just loved the way it looked and sounded!

The Soldaran personal names are all straightforward Latinized names most people would recognize as still in use today. Later on in the trilogy, in Book 3, to be precise, there’s a large battle scene. Well, I knew nothing about how to write convincingly about military action, so I read a book about military strategy written by a career army officer. I based that battle and the strategy behind it directly on a real battle from ancient times.

What was the biggest challenge you faced in writing this trilogy?

The biggest challenge for me was finding a way to divide the story into three parts. I wrote the entire thing as one very long story. I soon realized that I’d have little to no chance of finding a publisher who would be willing to take a chance on a 1200+ page manuscript from a first-time novelist; however, three 400 page manuscripts just might have a chance! So, I had to go back and look for three natural break points in the overall story. After I identified the best places to break, I then had to write new material to serve as the beginning chapters of Books 2 and 3, and a suitable ending for Book 2. It took some thinking, but I got it done in what I believe to be a satisfying manner.

Congratulations on winning the Benjamin Franklin award for the Best First Book in Fiction. Can you tell us a little bit about that?

The Ben Franklin Awards are given out yearly by the Independent Book Publishers Association, a large international trade group of indie publishers both big and small. Perhaps the best known of its members is St. Martin’s Press. I got to go to the ceremony, which was held in L.A. in 2008. It was very exciting! I got to get up in front of an entire ballroom full of industry folk and give a little thank-you speech.

And then on top of that, Publishers Weekly gave you a great review for the sequel, “Griffin’s Shadow”. You must be very happy.

“Happy” is too tame a word! “Ecstatic” is more like it! The Library Journal has also now officially endorsed “Griffin’s Shadow” as well.

I haven’t read “Griffin’s Shadow” yet, but the style of the cover art is dramatically different from that of “Griffin’s Daughter”, can I expect a similar shift in the style of the novel?

Only in that “Griffin’s Shadow” is darker in tone. It deals with loss and adversity, and how the main characters cope. The change in cover style was a marketing decision. The publishers wanted to avoid some confusion about the series that the first cover created. A lot of people mistakenly thought GD was a YA or Young Adult title, aimed at teens. The look of the cover and the fact that the two main characters were both very young contributed to this. The publishers have since re-issued GD with a new cover more in line with the cover of GS.

What is the title of the third book in the trilogy, and when can we expect it to be released?

The third book is titled “Griffin’s Destiny” and if all goes according to plan, it should be released sometime in 2011.

So, what comes after this trilogy for you? Are you working on something now, or still focusing on Jelena and her adventures for the time being?

I am currently working on a science fiction project. No magic or elves in sight! It takes place on a distant planet that was colonized by humanity, but instead of learning from the mistakes they made back on Earth, they brought all their prejudices and war-like impulses with them. The story takes place 400 years after the first colonial civilization destroyed itself in a war. Their surviving descendants have managed to rebuild and regain a technology level equal to the late 19th-early 20th century, so I guess you could say it has elements of steampunk in it, though it’s not specifically a steampunk-genre novel.

If your fans want to find you, where’s the best place? Your website, or will you be attending any live events this year?

I’ll be at LosCon again this year, which is the Los Angeles Science Fiction and Fantasy Convention, which will be happening in November. People can always contact me through my website at www.leslieannmoore.com.

At the World Fantasy convention it was my pleasure to meet S.G Browne and hear him read the first chapter of his novel, BREATHERS. Happily, when I asked if I could interview him for this blog, Scott said yes.

I’ve really enjoyed reading your flash fiction on your Live Journal, in particular “Oh Say Can You See…” and “Zombie Gigolo”. Can your fans expect more zombie-themed flash in the future? Will any of them feature characters from BREATHERS?

There will definitely be some zombie-themed posts on my Live Journal blog or on the Undead Anonymous web site, though whether they’ll feature characters from the novel other than Andy remains to be seen.  The “Zombie Gigolo” piece is actually the opening to my entry into the Gross Out Contest at WHC in 2008.  It’s a little more graphic and gritty than the narrative in BREATHERS.

Speaking of BREATHERS, I’ve got to ask, how nervous are you about Breathers? Speaking as someone who has been lucky enough to hear you read some of it, I’m sure it’s going to be a smashing success, but I can’t imagine your insides are in much better shape than Andy’s as you wait to see what’s going to happen.

I vacillate between oddly calm and completely freaked out.

So, why do you write about zombies?

Because I dream about zombies chasing me and I find it thrilling.  Not in a necrophilia sort-of-way, but in the adrenaline rush kind-of-way.  They’re creepy supernatural creatures, without the erotic allure of vampires or the masculine, bestial appeal of werewolves.  They’re also tragically comical.  There’s this humanity about them, about who they were before they became the living dead, that I find amusing and compelling.  Which is essentially why I wrote BREATHERS.

We’ll assume your favorite character from BREATHERS is Andy, so who is your second favorite character in BREATHERS? Why?

Jerry, a twenty-one-year-old zombie who listens to rap music and wears his pants halfway down his ass.  I like Jerry because he’s a bit of a goof and he has no filter on what comes out of his mouth, but he has a good heart and he says “Dude” all the time.  My favorite word is “Dude.”J

Oh my god, I love the word dude. I say it all the time (my friends even tease me about it). It seems very cruel that I need to wait until tomorrow to read this book! LoL One of the things I love the most about BREATHERS is that your zombies are sentient but decomposing. How is it that you are so knowledgeable about things like sloughage and decomposition rates?

Isn’t everyone?  While I was writing BREATHERS, I realized that in order to add some visceral reality to my decomposing protagonist and the mythology I’d created, I had to do some research.  I wanted to ground my story with enough details to offset the liberties I’d taken with zombie physiology.  While I cannibalized some facts about human decomposition from an on-line article by Dr. Trisha Macnair, I have to give special props to Mary Roach, author of STIFF: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers, from whom I learned about sloughage, cadaver impact testing, and that up until 1965, necrophilia wasn’t a crime in any U.S. state.

Historically, zombie movies and stories have often been used to make political statements and social criticism. Does BREATHERS have a deeper meaning, or is it pure entertainment?

Initially, I just wanted to write a story where the reader would empathize with the zombie as protagonist, even when he gave in to his instincts.  It was an angle on zombies I’d never seen done before — a dark comedy about a reluctant zombie learning to cope with his new existence in a society that reviles him.  While there is an underlying theme about racism and prejudice, that was never the driving force behind BREATHERS.  It just naturally evolved out of the story.

A little birdy (meme) told me you used to work for Disney. What did you do?

I worked post-production for a company that made all of the TV spots and theatrical trailers for all movies Disney, including Touchstone and Hollywood Pictures. I started out as a driver and left as an assistant producer after two years when I realized working 60 hours a week left little time for writing. Or having any kind of a social life.

Did you ever meet anyone famous?

I met Kevin Costner in 1990 while we were cutting spots for Dick Tracy. He asked me if we were working on the Dick Tracy campaign and before I realized it was him, I answered, “Yeah,” then was too stunned to follow up with anything else. That was it. That was the extent of my reply. One word. Four letters. One syllable.

What’s this I hear about BREATHERS being made into a movie?

Well, it just so happens my film agent also represents Diablo Cody, so one thing led to another and the next thing I know, Diablo Cody and Mason Novick, the writer and director of JUNO, are on board to co-produce the film version of BREATHERS, with Geoff Latulippe adapting the screenplay. Fox Searchlight bought the rights and suddenly my book is on the front page of the Daily Variety. I scrubbed out my toilet the next day just to keep some perspective.

If your fans want to meet up with you in person, what conventions should they plan to attend?

I’ll be attending the World Horror Convention in Winnipeg, April 30-May 3, as well as the HWA Stoker Weekend June 12-14 in Burbank, and the World Fantasy Convention in San Jose, October 29- November 1.

Thank you so much for taking time to answer my questions Scott. Good luck with BREATHERS, I’m sure it will be a roaring success. See you in Winnipeg

Scott’s Website –> http://www.sgbrowne.com/
Undead Anonymous –> http://www.undeadanonymous.com/

A few months ago I was in my local library and as I was walking by the racks of paperbacks a cover caught my eye. It was the cover for Jim C. Hine’s book Goblin Hero. I know they say not to judge a book by its cover, but after just a quick glance at that one, I had to read that book.

I’m so glad I did.

The novel was awesome. It was witty and funny and kept me turning the pages. In short, I loved it.

When I was done, I looked up its author online and discovered that not only was the novel pretty made of awesome, so was its author. I’ve been following Jim’s livejournal for quite some time now, and that’s how it was that I happened to comment to one of his posts and say, not really expecting an answer, “Hey, when are you going to do a guest-blog spot for Niteblade?”.

Happily Jim said, “How about an interview?”. As you can imagine I jumped at the chance.

Jim’s newest novel, the first in a brand new series featuring some ass-kicking princesses, is called The Stepsister Scheme, and that is mostly what we talked about. Of course, since I first became enamored of his work through the goblins, I couldn’t resist make a quick side-trip to that subject too

Okay, before we get to the Princess series and The Stepsister Scheme in general, I have got to ask – why did you make your goblins in the goblin series blue? Was it specifically to be different or were there deeper forces at work there?

I’m afraid there were no deep forces involved. Not even any shallow forces. I just like blue, and I figured a dark blue color made sense for a race who lived in the darkness. My cover artist painted the goblins much more brightly than I had imagined, but I think that worked well. Looking back, I’m glad I didn’t go with green, if only to keep people from thinking I had ripped off Shrek. (I wrote the book before Shrek came out, even if it wasn’t published until afterward.)

Where did the inspiration for the princess series come from? What about the Stepsister Scheme specifically?

The princess books were inspired by my daughter. Like many young girls, she went through a phase where she was a little infatuated with all things princess. We’ve had princess movies, princess dolls, princess tissue boxes, princess bedsheets. . . . They’re like pastel tribbles, multiplying until they fill up every room in the house!

The movies were all right, moving a little beyond the “helpless damsel in distress” thing, but a lot of the merchandise was just painful. “Simpering” is the best word I can find for some of the imagery.

I decided I needed to present a different kind of princess, women who could save the prince, fight bad guys, and generally kick butt. Sort of a cross between the old fairy tales (pre-Disney) and Charlie’s Angels. And of course, the first book is dedicated to my daughter.

Can you tell us a little bit about Stepsister Scheme?

This is the first in a series of at least three books. Danielle (Cinderella) is our viewpoint character. She’s just married the prince and is trying to settle down into her new life when all hell breaks loose. Assassination attempts and kidnappings, not to mention secrets of every kind.

Enter Snow (White) and Talia (Sleeping Beauty). If you read the old fairy tales, Talia was gifted with perfect grace and dancing skills . . . just the kind of thing you need if you want to be a martial arts master. As for Snow, she’s inherited her mother’s magic mirror and a whole lot of power. Add Danielle into the mix, with her gift for communicating with animals, and you have an impressive little team.

I seem to remember reading that one of the princesses is based on your daughter, which one is it and how does your daughter feel about that? I’ve got to think it would be pretty darn cool.

The character isn’t based on my daughter, but when we were working with our cover artist, I sent along a photo of my then seven-year-old girl, asking if there was any way the artist might be able to use her as inspiration for Princess Talia (Sleeping Beauty). He did, and did an amazing job.

I asked my daughter before doing any of this. At first I think she thought it was a little weird, but she was okay with it. Then my niece came over, and they were both looking at the cover. My niece decided she wanted to be Danielle. At that point, once my daughter saw how jealous her cousin was, I think she decided this was pretty darn cool indeed.

Retold or modernized fairytales and fairytale-inspired novels seem to be very popular right now, what do you think your princess series will add to this growing body of work?

The absolute best use of tableware in melee combat ever!

There are a few things I tried to accomplish with the book. One is to portray three strong female characters who aren’t caricatures. Some of the early “warrior woman” fantasies give you characters who are all but indistinguishable from their male counterparts. The “Men with boobs” phenomenon. I wanted my characters to be real people with strengths and flaws and their own personalities, personalities which sometimes come into conflict and don’t revolve around men.

I also wanted to have fun. Sure, I’m dealing with some deeper issues, but I want people to keep turning the page and saying, “That’s awesome! I know it’s late and I’ve got work/school tomorrow, but I’ve just got to find out what comes next!”

What is the one question you love to answer or the one you’d love to answer but never get asked?

“Where can I sign up to be your rich patron so you can quit your day job and live a life of spoiled luxury?”

Ooh good one, I wish someone would ask me that question too! Thank you for taking time out to talk with me Jim.

If you’d like to check out Jim you can find him online at http://www.jimchines.com

Oh. And did I mention that The Stepsister Scheme was just released today? It was! Go! Go! Go! My copy was pre-ordered, don’t worry about me

*Photo of Jim by Craig Hebert

Straight up, I adore Carrie Jones. She’s clever, compassionate, funny and a damned good writer so when I heard she had a new book coming out I used it as an excuse to interview her Enjoy!

Can you tell Niteblade readers a little bit about NEED?

Sure. Zara is a Charleston runner who collects phobia. She never knew her real dad. Her stepfather just died. Her mom is mourning big time and she’s sent Zara to live with her grandmother in Maine so she can recover and stay “Safe.” Zara doesn’t think she’s in danger; she thinks her mother just can’t deal.

Wrong. Turns out that guy she sees everywhere, the one leaving trails of gold glitter, isn’t a figment of her imagination or some random stalker. He’s a pixie—and not the cute, lovable kind with wings who hangs out with Peter Pan. He’s the kind who has dreadful, uncontrollable needs. And he’s trailing Zara.

She also falls in massive like with a guy named Nick so there’s some romance thrown in, because I am all about the love connection.

And that cover! Oh my goodness, it’s awesome. Did you squeal with delight when you first saw it?

Oh! Thank you for liking it. Yeah, I pretty much passed out when I saw it. The cat revived me by pawing my hair. Then I hyperventilated. Then I sort of staggered around the kitchen explaining to the dog how cool it all was. The dog wagged her tail, but I think she was just humoring me because she was hoping for some fine beef-flavored doggy treats.

I’m sure that somewhere in there I squealed so loudly that people in Oklahoma could hear it. I do know the police were called.

There was a story you told on one of the blogs you post at, about the man who inspired your pixie. I have been trying to think of a clever way to ‘trick’ you into telling it again, but I fail. Will you please share that with us here?

I was at the Common Ground Fair, which is this huge, cool fair in Maine that’s sponsored by Maine Organic Farmers and Growers Association (MOFGA). To get to the main part of the fair you have to walk about a half mile through this sweet trail that curves through these tall spruce trees.

Right in front of me was this guy. He had a weird vibe. He was wearing all corduroy – blazer, pants. And sticking out from his blazer was this long tail-like appendage that was wrapped in different colored earth-toned cloth. I guess he could tell I was checking him out because he turned his head and looked at me. His eye was this startling silver color.

How startling? So startling that I actually gasped and got creeped out.

Then when we were in line to pay we made eye contact again and his eyes were brown.

I know! I know! I probably imagined the silver eye color.

It doesn’t matter. That was one of the main things that got me started. Then, I just had this image of a man standing outside an airport pointing at an airplane this girl was on.

It also creeped me out.

So, I started writing.

Did you find it difficult to go from writing realistic fiction to writing NEED where you’ve still got the ‘normal world’ but enhanced with magic?

I’ve always loved magically enhanced worlds, so for me it was this massive pleasure to be able to try to write NEED. The hardest part was going from really character-propelled writing to a more plot-based writing with so many external elements. My first three books were really focused on internal changes.

That was also why it was so much fun to try. I get bored sooooo easily and NEED was an experiment really. I wanted to see if I could do it. Hopefully I did.

It seems to me that comparisons between NEED and Twilight are inevitable. How does that make you feel?

It makes me feel a whole lot of complex things.

I’m honored because TWILIGHT is such a compelling read and lost of people adore it. I mean I think it’s amazing to have my book mentioned in the same breath as a book that people love so intensely.

The comparisons also worry me because I don’t want people to expect Zara to be the same as Bella. Zara has really different motivations than Bella and a really different character. She wants so badly to conquer her fears and to be a hero. She’s not someone who is easily satisfied. So, I worry that because of the comparisons TWILIGHT fans will read NEED and think: Zara is so not Bella. Yuck. I think that would give Zara hurt feelings.

Finally, I’m frustrated because there’s a whole series of literature before TWILIGHT that NEED could also be compared to and that TWILIGHT could be compared to. There’s a lot of books about girls being thrust out of their element and put some place different and scary and cold (or wet for TWILIGHT). Gothic romances abound with it. I worry that people are forgetting the literature of before, the literature that influenced NEED and TWILIGHT and so many other books. I want those books to be honored and not forgotten.

What was your favorite thing about writing NEED? The most challenging?

I loved finding out what was going to happen next and I loved the challenge of writing from a plot-suspense perspective.

The hardest part was ending the book. I didn’t want to end it. I wanted to keep writing it.

While I can’t imagine NEED not being a resounding success, I bet you’re incredibly nervous, what are you doing to try and stay sane?

You are way too nice to me, but thank you. Well, seriously, I can REALLY imagine it not being a success at all, so I am beyond scared.

I think I’m pretty far from sane normally, I mean, I do have my dog and cat post blog entries for me. The way I keep from totally losing it and not running naked down the Main Street of Ellsworth, Maine screaming “I’m a sucky writer and please don’t flush my book down your toilet” is:

1. I pretend it’s not happening.
2. I pretend it’s not happening more.
3. I refuse to self google.
4. I work REALLY hard on this super secret project I’ve got going.

Is there anything else you’d like to add?

Just thank you so much for interviewing me. It was really kind of you, and to thank people for reading the whole interview. That was really kind of them.

While I can’t speak for everyone reading this interview, I have to say I enjoyed conducting it and I hope we’ll be able to do another someday. Good luck for lots of sales and for staying sane

Need hits the shelves today. Today. So if you’re intrigued you can pick up a copy for yourself

One thing I learned while attending the World Fantasy Convention in Calgary this October was that I wasn’t nearly as well read in the genre as I thought. One person I didn’t know of and hadn’t read before going to the con was David Drake, however, by the time I left I was a fan — and I hadn’t read a word he’d written yet.

It started with a panel. The panel was meant to address the question ‘Is fantasy an inherently violent genre?’. I didn’t actually care about the issue, to be honest, I was going to listen to another man I’d become a fan of (without reading any of his work or seeing a single one of the movies made from his books), David Morrell. As it turns out only David Morrell and David Drake showed up, the other half of the panel were MIA.

Mr. Morrell and Mr. Drake quickly dealt with the panel question (the answer, it turns out, is no btw ) and began to have a discussion. They talked about war, combat, conditioning…so many things. It was a profound experience for me, listening to them, and I was not alone, everyone I spoke to about that panel agreed.

Later I made a point of going to listen to Mr. Drake read from his latest work-in-progress. I loved the fact he was reading from a marked-up draft of his work. When I came home I ordered The Complete Hammer’s Slammers Volume 1from Amazon. However, as you can tell, I was a fan before I ever read a word.

You can imagine how pleased I was then, when David agreed to answer a few questions for Niteblade.

Or maybe you can’t.

I came to your work very late, I’m afraid, but I’m trying to make up for lost time. I’ve just about finished “The Complete Hammer’s Slammers Volume 1″ and even though I don’t usually read military sci-fi, I’m really enjoying it. One of my favorite aspects of these stories is that there are never clear-cut good guys or bad guys and very rarely a happy ending for anyone. Was that a conscious choice on your part or just the natural result of writing about war?

I don’t preach. That is, I was telling stories. In the situations I wrote about in my Military SF (which I’ll abbreviate MSF from here on out), people were making hard decisions and frequently trying very hard to kill other people, but they didn’t hate the people they were fighting. They didn’t know anything about them except the blur in their sight picture.

When I was in Viet Nam in 1970, we mostly ran into NVA because the VC had been pretty well destroyed in Tet of ‘68. I didn’t hate them, but I won’t pretend I had any positive feelings about them.

A few years ago I read the novelized memoir of an NVA veteran (The Sorrow of War by Bao Ninh). For the first time I had a feeling of what it was like to have us as the enemy. The troops were worse treated by their government than we were by ours, and the survivors were ostracized in a much more brutal fashion by the civilians they returned to. Mind, there weren’t many survivors: the author was, typically, the only man of his 500-man battalion who came back.

Knowing our similarity wouldn’t have made any difference in 1970, to me or him either one. We both had a job to do.

In the afterward of “The Complete Hammer’s Slammers Volume 1″ you talk about following the truth of your vision and in conclusion you say “And I don’t believe any writer can have real success unless he follows his own truth.“. A lot of aspiring writers read this blog, so I ask on their behalf, how do you learn to recognize your truth? How did you recognize yours?

I guess the short answer is: if you change something you’ve written because ‘it’ll never sell if I tell what really would happen,’ then you’ve identified your own truth. (And are planning to lie instead, of course.)

But in all honesty, I never thought of it that way. I didn’t realize that the early Hammer stories were unpalatable when I wrote them. I didn’t even realize that after they failed to sell for a year and a half. It was only on cool reflection (which, trust me, I wasn’t doing much of in 1973) that people were really appalled at being shown what had been our daily reality in Viet Nam.

The other thing is, however: if I’d written ordinary adventure stories as I started out doing, I’d be completely forgotten today. The reason the Hammer stories have been continuously in print for so long is that I really did tell the (my) truth.

I’ve only just begun reading “Lord of the Isles” which I understand is the first in a trilogy of trilogies called the Isles Series. Is that right? Can you tell us a little bit about the series?

There are nine books in the Isles series, right. There’s an arc, but you should be able to pick up any of the first six and read it without losing much of anything. I reintroduce the main characters in action in each.

The last three are a true trilogy: that is, elements are introduced in The Fortress of Glass, which are amplified in The Mirror of Worlds, and resolved (with a bang, if I may say so) in The Gods Return. But you really can read even those three alone or out of order. It works a lot better if they’re consecutive, though.

Remember that I wrote only short fiction for the first 12 years since I started selling. I couldn’t assume anybody who read (say) the October, 1976, issue of Galaxy would have already read the October, 1974, issue. Likewise with books in a store.

Basically, the Isles series is a Tolkienesque fantasy where the background is the Mediterranean Region during Classical times rather Northern Europe during the Middle Ages (my background as opposed to Tolkien’s). The four viewpoint characters are struggling to unite the human world against Evil which is just as fragmented as the forces of Good are, but which is generally inhuman.

I didn’t want a lot of scenes of tens of thousands of people slaughtering tens of thousands of other people. I’ve written that sort of story and I may do so again–but in the fantasies, the opponents can be demons or lichs or very large insects. I prefer that.

Hmm. I would’ve preferred that in 1970 too. Here I have the option.

The last book in the series, “The Gods Return” was recently released, can you tell us a little bit about it?

Gods wraps up the series, but more important it wraps up the final trilogy. I would hate for people to read the first seven books and be so horrified by one of the scenes in Fortress that they stopped there. (And I fear that may have happened.) There was a lot of ‘How could you do that?’ from readers.

Before I turned in the seventh book, I heard my editor on a panel say that, ‘This trilogy may not be the end of the series.’ I told him he was wrong: there’s no way to continue the Isles in any similar fashion beyond the end of Gods. This is a real climax/conclusion.

But I leave everybody (and their world) in a better place than any of them have been before.

How does it feel to finish the series off? Do you think you’re going to miss it?

A friend asked me if I felt relief when Gods came out. I realized I hadn’t thought (much) about the book in a year. I’d written a space opera and started an entirely new fantasy series since I shipped Gods off.

I’ve written a lot of books. I like most of them, and I like the Isles series a great deal. But I’m looking ahead, not back.

You say that writing heroic fantasy is good for your soul, why do you think that is? Is that why the WIP I was lucky enough to hear you read at WFC is fantasy-based?

I don’t want to write only fantasy, but switching from one genre to another (currently, from fantasy to space opera and back again) keeps me fresh and excited about what I’m doing. I did two of the Isles series back to back, and it felt like I’d been shoving a very big boulder uphill by the time I’d finished. I swore I’d never do that again–and I haven’t.

But changing off this way means that The Gods Return is just as fresh and fun to write as Lord of the Isles was back in 1995. (And boy, isn’t that a remarkably long time ago!)

One thing I’ve got to ask, why do you do all your writing outside?

Ah. Well, a variety of reasons. I haven’t driven a car since 1986 either (and that was to carry Larry Niven to the airport with his luggage); I get places on a motorcycle if I’m on my own. I just like having wide visibility.

I have wrens and finches land on me, sometimes. I get pooped on by hummingbirds. I watch frogs stalk and devour webworms (and stalk a skink, before getting a very unpleasant surprise when it tried to devour said poisonous reptile).

Think of me as being One with Nature. And okay, I’m weird. But I’m weird in a good way. (That one, at least.)

I think ‘normal’ is greatly overrated, so here’s to being weird in a good way Thank you very much for answering my questions.

If you’d like to find out more about David Drake and the books he’s written (far too many for me to list here), you can check him out on the web at http://www.david-drake.com . On a related note, David talks a bit more about truth (and commercialism) in his most recent newsletter @ http://david-drake.com/newsarchive/news48.html

Enjoy.