Dream Anthology: Start with Andre Norton

 

The topic this week is which authors, living or dead, I’d want to be in a dream anthology with. I’m going to twist it a bit and tell you which worlds by which authors I’d LOVE to be invited to play in (and then I’ll talk about an anthology below).

First and foremost is Andre Norton. She used to do collections where other authors were invited to write stories set in her Witch World universe and I SO longed to write a story there. I’d probably have written something about the Were Riders because I was always fascinated by them, and their mysterious backstory.

Second would be Nalini Singh. I’d be so honored to write a story set in any of her worlds. I probably gravitate to the Psy-Changeling storyline the most, if I were trying to write a tale for her universe – I’d write one very sexy emotionless Arrow and the heroine who thaws him out…but I’m also fascinated by the Guild Hunter series. Nalini writes more dark and violent themes than I tend to, especially for the Guild Hunter series, but I would find a way to incorporate those elements if I had the chance to ‘play’. Archangels, angels and vampires - oh my!

I enjoy everything Ilona Andrews writes but I’m a permanent ‘guest’ of the Innkeeper Chronicles series (meaning it’s my favorite of theirs – I probably tried too hard to make that oh-so-clever comment work, huh?) and I’m not positive I could juggle all the scifi and fantasy elements as smoothly as the husband and wife writing team does, but I’d sure try.

I’d also love to be invited to spin a story set in our own SFF7-member Jeffe Kennedy’s Twelve Kingdoms. There’s so much rich material to work with there, it’d be hard to pick just one theme and settle to write it. I think I’d want a Dasnarian mercenary hero and the heroine would be an everyday woman who gets caught up in an adventure…uh oh, I’m plotting! Sorry, Jeffe!

And to round out my dream list of anthologies I’d want to be invited to (or Kindle Worlds if such things were happening), may I please set a story on Anne McCaffrey’s Pern? I want to write dragons and riders and fighting Thread!

As it happens I am in a scifi romance anthology with a few of my favorite SFR authors and it releases this very week! Here’s the info:

Blurb for Embrace the Romance: Pets In Space 2:

The pets are back! Embrace the Romance: Pets in Space 2, featuring twelve of today’s leading Science Fiction Romance authors brings you a dozen original stories written just for you! Join in the fun, from the Dragon Lords of Valdier to a trip aboard award-winning author, Veronica Scott’s Nebula Zephyr to journeying back to Luda where Grim is King, for stories that will take you out of this world! Join New York Times, USA TODAY, and Award-winning authors S.E. Smith, M.K. Eidem, Susan Grant, Michelle Howard, Cara Bristol, Veronica Scott, Pauline Baird Jones, Laurie A. Green, Sabine Priestley, Jessica E. Subject, Carol Van Natta, and Alexis Glynn Latner as they share stories and help out Hero-Dogs.org, a charity that supports our veterans!

10% of the first month’s profits go to Hero-Dogs.org. Hero Dogs raises and trains service dogs and places them free of charge with US Veterans to improve quality of life and restore independence.

Buy Links:  

Amazon US   Amazon CA   Amazon UK   Amazon AU   Amazon FR   Amazon DE

Amazon JP   iBooks   B&N    Kobo    Google Play

Blurb for my story - Star Cruise: Songbird:

Grant Barton, a Security Officer on the Nebula Zephyr, is less than thrilled with his current assignment to guard an Interstellar singing sensation while she’s on board the ship. It doesn’t help that he and his military war bird Valkyr are dealing with their recent separation from the Sectors Special Forces and uncertainty over their future, with their own planet in ruins.

Karissa Dawnstar is on top of the charts and seemingly has it all – talent, fame, fortune and devoted fans, but behind her brave smile and upbeat lyrics she hides an aching heart. When a publicity stunt goes wrong, Karissa finds herself in the arms of the security officer assigned to protect her – and discovers a mutual attraction she can’t ignore.

Trouble continues to plague the pair, driving a wedge between them and leaving Grant certain that Karissa is in more danger than she realizes, from overzealous fans and her own management. Grant is determined to protect Karissa whether she wants his help or not. Can he discover the truth behind what’s going on before he loses Karissa or is there someone else plotting to keep them apart – permanently?

Wishful Anthology

Coming to you live from the annual Novelist's Inc conference in St. Pete Beach - which means this will be short and blunt because I'm blogging between workshop sessions.  Also. I'm warm.

If I could be in an anthology with any three authors alive or dead, here's my dream list:

Andre Norton - because her books are why I'm in this mess to being with.
Robin McKinley - because of The Blue Sword and Sunshine
Arthur C. Clarke - because Childhood's End

Lofty goals. But lets be clear. I'd prefer to NOT have to die to get this anthology. Guess I'd better get on inventing that time machine, huh?

On Shorts and Anthologies

I'm not much of a short fiction writer.  That's OK.  I have a few novella-length things set in the larger world of Maradaine that are cooking away in the back of my skull, but on the whole, I don't think in Short Fiction.

So when the question is asked, "Who would you want to be in an anthology with?" my brain kind of grinds its gears.  I mean, I don't usually think about that, because I don't tend to write the sort of thing that ends up in anthologies.

Unless, of course, you count my first pro sale, which is a short story in pretty cool anthology of Texas writers, Rayguns Over Texas.  And it's got a few big names in there: Michael Moorcock, Joe Lansdale, an introduction by Bruce Sterling.  Plus (in addition to myself), there's great stories by Stina Leicht, Nicky Drayden, Chris Brown and many more.

Plus, I'm pretty proud of this short, Jump the Black.  It's a tight four thousand words that does a lot in a small amount of story.  I occasionally will get an email asking if I'm ever going to do a full novel-length version of it.  And....it's in there, cooking away in my skull.  It'll come out when it's ready.

Release Day! The Imposters of Aventil by Marshall Ryan Maresca

It's Release Day for our own Marshall Ryan Maresca's latest in his world of Maradaine,  The Imposters of Aventil. Veranix is back in this blend of fantasy, mystery, and adventure.

"Veranix is Batman, if Batman were a teenager and magically talented.” —Library Journal

THE IMPOSTERS OF AVENTIL

Summer and the Grand Tournament of High Colleges have come to the University of Maradaine. If the heat and the crowds weren't enough to bring the campus and the neighborhood of Aventil to a boiling point, rumors that The Thorn is on the warpath—killing the last of the Red Rabbits—is enough to tip all of Maradaine into the fire.

Except Veranix Calbert, magic student at the University, is The Thorn, and he's not the one viciously hunting the Red Rabbits. Veranix has his hands full with his share of responsibilities for the Tournament, and as The Thorn he’s been trying to find the source of the mind-destroying effitte being sold on campus. He’s as confused as anyone about the rumors.

When The Thorn imposter publicly attacks the local Aventil constables, the Constabulary bring in their own special investigators: Inspectors Minox Welling and Satrine Rainey from the Maradaine Grand Inspectors Unit. Can Veranix find out who the imposter is and stop him before Welling and Rainey arrest him for the imposter’s crimes?

Buy It Now:   Amazon   |   B&N   |  BAM   |   IndieBound

Dreams....

So if I were going to be in an anthology with any other authors, living or dead, who would they be and why?

Hell, that's ridiculously easy.

First, Stephen King. Why? Because he's one of the largest influences I've ever had and even his bad books re better than average.

Second, Mark Twain. Why? Because, damn, to this day that man's works remain potent, observant and humorous.

Third, Ray Bradbury. Why? Because he's Ray Bradbury. Enough said.

I can think of others, of course, and plenty of them, but in several cases I have already BEEN in anthologies with them. In all three of these cases I have never been that fortunate.

As with Jeffe before me I can show you one of my dram anthologies that has come to pass.

And I can show you the cover for the next anthology I'm in, too.

If you should find yourselves in Haverhill Massachusetts on October twenty-first, between the hours of 10 Am and 4:30 PM, you might want to visit me and around forty-nine other artists for the Merrimack Valley Halloween Book Festival. 

We'll have stuff to sell and there will be free panels, too. 

Joe Hill 
Hank Phillippi Ryan
Sarah Smith
Gregory Bastianelli
Matt Bechtel
Stephen Bissette
Daniel Braum
Dana Cameron
Glenn Chadbourne
Jason Ciaramella
Joseph Citro
Tom Deady
Kristin Dearborn
Rachel Autumn Deering
Barry Lee Dejasu
Amber Fallon
Dan Foley
Craig Shaw Gardner
Christopher Golden
Scott Goudsward
Catherine Grant
Kat Howard
Christopher Irvin
Nicholas Kaufmann
Brian Keene
Toni L.P. Kelner (Leigh Perry)
John Langan
Fred Van Lente
Livia Llewellyn
Bracken MacLeod
John M. McIlveen
Hillary Monahan
James A. Moore
Holly Newstein Hautala
Errick Danger Nunnally
Jason Parent
Philip Perron
David Price
Charles R Rutledge
Mary SanGiovanni
Rob Smales
Thomas Sniegoski
Paul Tremblay
Tony Tremblay
Kenneth Vaughan
Trisha Wooldridge
Douglas Wynne
Rio Youers

Jeffe's Dream Anthology

Our topic this week at the SFF Seven is: If you were going to be in an anthology with any three authors, living or dead, who would you pick and why?

Amusingly enough (and this was totally NOT my topic suggestion, even) I get to be in an anthology in December with three AMAZING authors. So, I feel I'd be remiss not to mention that. It's particularly shiny for me because Thea Harrison put the concept together, and I've been loving her Elder Races series for years. So much so that I stalked her, arranged to meet her for breakfast at the RWA conference in NYC a few years ago, and made her be my friend.

Score!

Then Thea also invited Grace Draven and Elizabeth Hunter to play, both of whom are wonderful writers who'd I'm thrilled to be alongside. It's a great concept on Thea's part, because we all have similar voices and fantasy styles, which should make for a fabulous collection.

The book is called AMID THE WINTER SNOW, and will be four novellas, each set in one of our worlds, taking place over the midwinter holiday. My story is THE SNOWS OF WINDROVEN, which (for those who are familiar with the Twelve Kingdoms/Uncharted Realms series) is a continuation of Ash and Ami's story, told from his point of view, during the Feast of Moranu at Castle Windroven. I have some hints of what Thea, Grace, and Elizabeth are doing and I'm so psyched to read those stories. If I weren't IN the anthology, I'd totally be jonesing to buy it.

So, really, this is my dream anthology, right there. Lucky Jeffe!!

Then, if I were to get all super dreamy about it... wow.

Anne McCaffrey
Tanith Lee
Patricia McKillip
Jeffe Kennedy

Kind of gives me the chills to put my name in there. Also makes me feel pretty uppity. I'm safe in this dream, because Anne and Tanith have died now, so it will never happen. Not that it would have happened anyway, but these are the writers whose fantasy stories shaped me and who I still emulate.

Or WISH I could emulate.

That said, I feel pretty effing fancee being in AMID THE WINTER SNOW with those writers, so my dreams don't exceed my reality by much. Counting my blessings.

Responding to the Fandom

I don’t take input from anyone on which of my stories to tell next…

Or what events should happen to which secondary character, who should fall in love with whom, or any other aspect of my various series.

I’ve been writing for myself since I was age seven. I write the stories I want to read more of and can’t find, whether set in ancient Egypt or the far future of my Sectors.  I LOVE that I have readers who enjoy the stories too! I like hearing from readers and I don’t mind at all if someone tells me they’d love the sequel to Mitch’s adventures in Escape from Zulaire someday, or asks why am I “wasting my time writing fantasy when I should be spending my time writing more scifi romance”, as I was told by someone after my book The Captive Shifter came out. Well, as it happens, I wrote that story originally in late 2010, I like that story, I like the characters and I let it sit and stew until I felt I could revise it to the point where it was ready to be published and then there it was. Two sequels will be forthcoming, and maybe more, because I have other tales I want to tell in that world. I’m personally excited by that world! 

But I get that I have passionate readers who really prefer only my scifi romances and equally terrific readers who prefer only my Egyptian paranormals. (And some wonderful readers who love it ALL.)  It’s good feedback to have.

I’ve even been told that at least one reader wants me to get on with the end game war between my deadly aliens, the Mawreg, and the human-ruled Sectors. Don’t hold your breath, anyone. I have a LOT of stories to tell in the Sectors and none of them is a giant space opera full of space battles to resolve that conflict. I’m drawn to the more individual stories, set on one ship or one planet. Filling in the edges of the puzzle, not doing the whole 1000 piece finished-architecture at once.

 I do have a sequel in mind for Mitch of Zulaire now, by pure coincidence, but I don’t know when my Muse and I are going to get around to writing it. As everyone here knows (because I say it so often), I’m quite superstitious about how my Muse works and I only write what I’m really in the mood to tackle at any given time. If the words are flowing – yay! If a new and shinier idea pops up, I’ll go where the creative energy is. I don’t usually hop to a new plot about some other set of characters in the middle of writing a specific book, obviously, but as the next new project down the road.

It’s probably just as well I’m not traditionally published, with a contract that says I need to write the next book in series XYZ. Apparently my Muse and I rebel at such direction! We like to meander among the myriad of creative possibilities and pick whichever thing appeals to us.

I don’t want to sound truculent (always wanted to say that word!) but I don’t take direction either. Life is too short, I have too many stories to tell and the Muse knows which one needs telling next.

Not the Author but I liked the way the photo representing me with a myriad of creative possibilities!
Photo purchased from DepositPhoto

Story Tetris

This is my last post as a Pacific Northwesterner. By this time next week, I will have relocated to Florida. As you can see, Hatshepsut is very keen on 'helping' with the packing. We're almost done and the moving truck is filling up. I am so tired.

Packing a moving truck is an art. Think Truck Tetris. Or huge, fragile jigsaw puzzle. It's very much like putting a book together. Every book has scenes and characters and arcs. Motivations and conflicts. Those come in varying sizes and weights. The ones I can't lift have to act as the anchors to all the other bits and pieces. As the biggest, heaviest segments settle into place in a story, I have to juggle the smaller ones, slotting them into the perfect place for them. In a moving truck, I do that so the load doesn't shift and break everything. I guess stories work the same way. The pieces interlock. They prop one another up and keep the structure from collapsing under its own weight.


I wish I could talk about whether or not I'm tempted to cave to fan pressure about how a story goes down. But I'm honestly not in that position. I've had a grand total of one, count 'em one, protest about how one of my books ended. And at that point, the book was in print. So it wasn't as if I had an option to change that one to suit the reader. Would I if I had readers beating down my doors over a story?

Probably not. I cannot rearrange a story - shift boxes around - without risking the whole thing collapsing and breaking. That plot twist readers hate is, for me, the ONLY thing that will fit in just that spot in the story. It supports and props up the rest of the stuff that gets piled atop it. But hey. Never say never, right? Who knows what I'll do when faced with a mob of annoyed readers brandishing torches?

Where I DO bow to reader demand right now, though, is in what book to write when. Well. Kinda. I've had a number of readers after me for the conclusion of one of the series I write. Not that I didn't WANT to write it - but eh the rights are mine again and here we go.

So. Sunnier climes ho. When someone yells at me in protest over a plot point, I'll let you know whether I cave or fight back. In the meantime, break out the sunscreen and shades. We're palm tree bound.

Perils of the Writer: Letting Fandom Set Your Sails

So, yesterday I had a nice long chat with one of my beta-readers about A Parliament of Bodies.  Yes, she gets to read it a year before the rest of you, but what she reads is an imperfect draft.  And we talked a bit about what happens in the book versus what her expectations as a fan were, and how either fulfilling or subverting those expectations result in reader satisfaction.

Because sometimes there is an urge to ignore what the story needs to give the fans "what they want".  And, I'm against doing that for two reasons.  One, I'm kind of a believer in that old Joss Whedon quote about not giving them what they want, but what they need.  This quote is sometimes treated with derision, in that people complain, "Oh, [Bad Plot Point] is what we 'needed'?"  I can understand that to a degree, especially when plots make characters suffer, characters the readers care about.  They don't want to see them suffer, because they want Good Things for the characters.

But my job is, as J. Michael Straczynski so eloquently put it once, to chase them up a tree and throw rocks at them.

The second reason I'm against changing with the winds of fandom desires is simple.  When it comes to Maradaine (or any other world of mine) and the characters within that world, no one is going to be more of a fan than me.  I love this setting, these people, and their story so much, and I hope that love comes through in what I'm writing.  It hurts me when bad things happen to them, but I also know... that's the path they're all on.

So what does that mean?

It means that I'm that #1 Fan, so I'm the one who gets to tie myself to a bed and break my own legs if I don't do right by the story.

So now I need to get back to work.  There's a certain fanboy who insists that I clean up this manuscript.  See you in the word mines.

It's Your Book, But You Need To Write It My Way

When fans tell you how to write your book, do you listen?

~shifty eyes~  

~leans forward~

~whispers~

What fans?

Just kidding. Sort of. Mebbe. There is no greater compliment than fans who really connect with your work. Some of those fans will shout their passion from every review page, book party table, and fan-Con hallway (gods bless 'em; most authors really need that visibility boost). Similarly, everybody has an opinion. So when those opinions about your work collide with a passion for the characters, world, and plot there might be a few "suggestions" made.

Don't kill that character. 

Ship these two characters. 

Get that character some religion. 

Not that religion.

Speaking practically, in a series where books are still being written, the author is most likely writing two or three books ahead of what's just hitting the shelves. A lot of those "suggestions" are too late.  Similarly, the series may only have been contracted for X number of books or the series was sold as a trilogy so there are certain plot points, milestones, character developments that have to occur at a specific in the timeline in order to satisfactorily end the series. Again, the suggestions are too late.

Now, what if, what if it's not too late? What if--because the author is a super-slow writer publishing on their own damn schedule like moi--there's time for fans to voice an opinion and have it be heard? Well, the kind of feedback that might sway me is if a minor character turns out to be a fan-favorite; that character might end up with more page time. Not so much as to take away from the story, but sure, why not give a nod to the fan base? Plot suggestions? No, sorry. My world, my crazy. Who lives and who dies? Sometimes those developments surprise even me. Who's going to get laid, when, and how explicitly will it be depicted?

Dudes. 

Duuuudes. 

Come on. 

Nookie will happen if and when it's meant to during the characters' developments. Whether it happens on page or off depends on a lot of things. It's not a radio show; the characters aren't taking requests.

Yep. Nope.

I've had this discussion in public plenty of times I see no reason not to have it here.

When people ask if I consider my fan base when I'm writing, the answer is no.

Please don't take that the wrong way if you are part of that fan base. It doesn't mean I don't like you and appreciate you. It means that I can't consider the desires of the readers when I am writing a story.

If I do, I might pull punches, and that weakens the tale.

Listen, I kill a LOT of characters off. I'm in  the final book of a series that involves a war with the gods. Trust me, a lot of people are about to die. I don't want to stop what I'm doing, what has been planned, and try to second-guess anyone. And, yes, that has blown up on me a time or two, when a novel hasn't the way a few people liked. That affected some Amazon reviews, but I'll stick to my plans.

It's not about the reviews. it's about telling my tale.

I can't do it any other way. If I'm nit having a good time, I firmly believe the readers will not have a good time.

The closest I've come to an exception was when I asked readers which character they wanted to see next on the cover for CITY OF WONDERS. I was rather pleasantly surprised when the vast majority asked to see Swech, one of the female leads who just happens to have the highest body count of anyone in the SEVEN FORGES series.

I'm all about commercial success, please don't get me wrong, but before I worry abut that part of the equation, I worry about telling a good tale. That means two things to me: 1) I'm not going t take your idea and write it for you so we can split the profits 50/50 (No really, that offer happens. A LOT) and 2) I'm writing the book I want to read. Hopefully I find others who feel the same way.

Who's Looking Over Your Shoulder as You Write? Appeasing the Fandom

One of my faithful desk companions - Isabel has little interest in the stories themselves, but she disapproves of my reaching for the mouse. Good incentive for me to keep typing with no backtracking!

Not as visible - and not as likely to claw me for reaching for the mouse - is everyone else virtually on my desk as I write. By this I mean my readers. And not just any readers - but those passionately invested in the stories, worlds and characters. You know who you are! These are the power readers, the ones who take time to give me personal feedback on how much they love what I write.

And they have opinions. Sometimes strong ones. Again, you know who you are. :-)

That's our topic this week: Responding to the fandom – where do you draw the line? (e.g., not killing a character after all)

It's an interesting question for me because I've noted several authors in recent years who I've felt have caved to reader pressure on various levels. That might be a bit sideways of this topic, so let me respond directly to the question before I dive into that.

Would I not kill a character because my readers urged me not to? Absolutely. Okay, probably I wouldn't. The only exception would be if I believed that death to be necessary to the story in a way that resulted in greater richness. I wouldn't do it to make a point or to create emotional angst. I like stories that make me feel enriched and optimistic, so I like to leave my readers with that feeling, too. I have killed characters - because people die, and sometimes a character's death is needed to allow another to move forward - and I would even kill a loved character because the story demands it.

For example, in MAGIC RISES, the sixth Kate Daniels books (don't read this paragraph if you aren't caught up and don't want to be spoilered) Ilona Andrews made the choice to kill Aunt Bea, a hugely popular character. I tell you - and you know if you love the series, too - I cried and cried. BUT, her death was important. The stakes were very high and it made no sense if no one was killed in that situation. Also, her death meant a change in the political structure and allowed two other characters to step into leadership positions. I'm sure the writing team of Ilona and Gordon Andrews got a LOT of upset feedback from their passionate fandom about not killing that character. They mention in interviews that they argued between themselves about it.

They made a hard decision and stood by it.

At the same time, other authors have made the choice to kill characters - even first person point-of-view protagonists - in order to make a point. George RR Martin famously kills off characters, sometimes almost arbitrarily, to demonstrate how capricious such things can be, and how tenuous our grip on life.

I'm not into that so much.

Where I do draw my own line is bending to political pressure. There's a great deal of discussion online about what's appropriate in real life - such as consent and healthy relationships - and also trope exhaustion. I've seen authors change their stories to accommodate this kind of feedback. One wrote a beta hero who gave way to the heroine in all things because her readers were "tired of alpha holes." (That's a cross between alpha and asshole, for those not in the know.) You know what? That book was dead boring, at least to me. I know some readers loved it, which is cool, but I thought it was far from her strongest work - and I fell off reading that series due to lack of interest.

Another author has gotten tons of feedback on a couple who are both highly emotional, sometimes violent people. She's really toned down their interactions over the years - and I wonder how much is due to the sometimes strongly chastising posts written about some of those scenes. The thing is, I read the most recent book - found it dead boring - then went back to an earlier one and devoured it for all the excitement and turmoil. I'm missing that element now.

Passionate voices are loud voices - and strong opinions have great conviction behind them. It's important to discuss issues like consent and healthy relationships. But it's worth noting that conflict is what makes STORIES interesting and exciting. I think authors bend to social pressure at the risk of bleeding the energy from their books.

In real life, we'd never find it useful for someone to die. As authors of our worlds, it's a choice we make. Sometimes with relish.

Because relish is what adds the flavor!

The Best of Both Worlds For Me

This week’s topic is about doing worldbuilding for the pleasure of doing it, as I understand the guidelines.

I write in two very different worlds – ancient Egypt and the far future. (I also have one fantasy romance out, The Captive Shifter, but as yet I haven’t written enough there to really discuss today. Although yes, I have massive worldbuilding in my head.)

Ancient Egypt is a very well established world, with oodles of research out there to revel in and draw from, and gorgeous artifacts galore, some of which I’ve seen with my own eyes and marveled at. I have multiple book shelves full of tomes about ancient Egypt – everything from translated love poems to scholarly treatises on one tomb by itself -  and I love doing the research. There are so many more stories and story possibilities than I could use in a lifetime.

 I picked my era, which is around 1550 BCE, when the Egyptians drove out the Hyksos and embarked upon an age of expansion and stability in the New Kingdom. I invented my pharaoh to allow myself more latitude in the stories I could tell, although he’s based on several real rulers of the time.  My added element is the fact that I have the Egyptian gods and goddesses involved in daily life the way the Egyptian believed and hoped they were. My readers have told me that I make them feel as if they were in ancient Egypt, despite the fact I have this paranormal or fantasy element going on, and I also commit certain deliberate anachronisms to make my books work better and sound plausible to the modern reader who may not be immersed in all the research about the time. (Not writing actual historical where every detail is expected to be 100% accurate.)  I have a page devoted to this on my webpage in fact. As an example, Egyptian deben wasn’t actual money per se, no coins but more of a concept of relative value, but my characters deal in actual money.

I really enjoy trying to fill in the blanks left for us by the elaborate tomb paintings and the artifacts, to figure out and portray what daily life might have been like for a lady in Pharaoh’s court or living on a country estate. How was it to take a ride in a war chariot and go so much faster than you’d ever moved in your entire life? What did a priestess of the Crocodile God do all day, running her temple?

In short, I have a heck of a wonderful time dwelling in ancient Egypt on my terms, telling my story and then returning to my own modern life.

Pretty much any topic I have questions on, I can find at least a few kernels of useful information in the research materials or online and then let my imagination soar.

Now the science fiction romances are a different story and there I created my interstellar society, the Sectors, from scratch.

Except not really, because my chosen author theory is that we as humans are going to remain pretty much the same, whether in the past or thousands of years into the future. I really resonated with the well-worn, lived in, used spaceship type of universe depicted in the “Aliens’ movies and the early “Star Wars.” I also loved Andre Norton’s science fiction and the structural set up she had going on. 

My Sectors are kind of similar to all of these influences, although I’ve added elements of my own including various alien civilizations both friend and foe. The longer I write Sectors novels, the more I add to the world building. I do have some secrets that only I know, which may or may not ever be revealed in a novel, but which give me the high level context to write the stories.

So I have fun in either universe I’m inhabiting – Egypt of the Pharaohs or the far future in the big galaxy. Currently I have my next Sectors novel at the developmental editor and I’m about midway through writing the first draft of my next Gods of Egypt novel. I'm living the best of both worlds!

Fandom: the Gateway Drug to World Building

The picture has nothing to do with the subject today. It's just the season for butterflies in the zinnias and I was lucky enough to be out there with a camera when this one flitted in to have a snack.

World building, huh? Well. I have a theory.

Fandom is the gateway drug to world building (and often to writing . . .)

Pretend for me that I'm not the only one so invested in a fandom or twelve that I tell myself stories inside the world of whatever story/movie/book/game du jour that I love. I mean, you have a thing you love. Maybe it's Dr. Who, or Anime,  or Star Wars, or Sponge Bob. I don't know and I don't judge. Much. But after you've binge-watched all you can binge-watch, what happens?

If, like me, you go into immediate withdrawal, you probably start daydreaming yourself onto the bridge of the starship Enterprise. Or into some tiny New England sea-side town mysteriously afflicted by madness and rumors of something terrible lurking beneath the surface of the waves. If you do that, you're world building. If you've ever shipped a non-canon partnering in that thing you love, you're world building. Sure. Both are on a small scale and in someone's pre-built world. But you are and you know what they say. The first taste is free.

It's a slippery slope. First you're playing through mental movies of you starring in that thing that gives you life, the next, you're resentful of the restrictions that come with working inside someone else's constraints. I mean it's a stupid rule that Sponge Bob can't fly, right? So you shift worlds - you create a new construct, one that's all your own, one that won't hold back your imagination. The world you create may be based off of something that already exists - whether book, game, TV show or movie, but you'll have tweaked it to suit you. And that's it. You're hooked on world building. You're spending your time debating the finer points of whether magic that requires blood makes the mages of your world vampires and if it doesn't, where exactly IS the line between blood mage and vampire? (Do they ever cooperate? Share blood recipes, maybe?)

World building is a game, one that begins with 'what if?' and ends in narrative structure, conflict and some kind of resolution. You mix and match and create something wholly new. Like a mad scientist. Oh. Oh. Do you suppose this makes one of us here the Walter White of fiction?

How Much Worldbuilding Is Too Much?

As much as I talk about Worldbuilding, when it comes to the actual writing of books, I don't put too much on the surface.  Sometimes it's out of fear of boring my potential audiences.*  Sometimes it's out of presumption that the things I know about the world are just so screamingly obvious that I don't have to actually explain them. 

But a lot of the time, it's because the worldbuilding details aren't necessarily relevant to the story at hand.  That's the challenge, is making those details come out as organic and natural.  Even if it isn't boring.  Heck, I could easily drop into any one of the Maradaine-set books a few thousand words on, say, the 7th Century disintegration of the Druth Kingdom, or the Mad Kings of the Cedidore Line in the 8th Century, or the coup against Queen Mara, complete with a stirring account of her fruitless last stand in her own throne room.***

But what would those have to do with the story at hand?

Not a whole lot.

What my underlying philosophy has been with translating worldbuilding into actual writing boils down to the Iceberg Principle: 90% is unseen under the surface.  One of the reasons I love using food as a worldbuilding reference point is it provides all sorts of under-the-surface information subconsciously.  If someone is eating sheep-kidney pie with parsnips and turnips it conjures a completely different cultural image than quails stuffed with dates and walnuts, or roasted goat and sweet potatoes, or mango chutney pour over broiled fish and brown rice.  Each of those dishes gave you a very distinct idea of the kind of person eating it, and what kind of culture they came from, yes?

Small, telling details.  That's the key. 

____
*- Who hasn't been reading something by a, shall we say, less meticulously edited author, and reach a point where we go, "Oh, infodump" and just scan until something actually starts happening again.**
**- I can think of one example where an author/series lost me completely, in that an entire chapter was a huge infodump on the history of genetic enhancements-- which didn't play into the plot of the book at all-- and all that happened in the chapter is a tertiary character walked across a spaceport terminal.
***- Come to think of it, any of those might make fun short stories or novelettes.  File that in the back of the brain.

Worldbuilding Indulgences: Quantity Varies by Subgenre

What worldbuilding do I do that isn't necessarily about the story itself but is a personal indulgence? It depends on the subgenre I'm writing.

There is so much worldbuilding necessary in second-world fantasy--the kind of story that doesn't take place in a recognizable period on Earth--that everything I include has to be relevant to the story; otherwise, the worldbuilding dominates the plot and character development...or I end up with a 300k tome. The first round of cuts I do in my second-world fantasies are the TMI details of the world. Does the reader really need to know where the water is sourced? Purified? Only if there's a plot-relevant problem with the water--scarcity, poisoned, monsters--or if an important character is employed in that industry. Infrastructure usually takes the first hit in the cuts, because I absolutely write that info in the draft. The administrative necessities of running a nation/tribe/horde? Again, it gets cut if it's not plot-relevant. A little bit of mundane is necessary, but too much can bog down the pacing and distract from the story rather enhance it. Weeds. I know them too well. Alas, getting lost in them is part of my process of immersing myself in the world I'm creating. Gods bless editing.

In contrast, for my upcoming Urban Fantasy series (releasing Jan 30th!), the worldbuilding there is all about pointing out the uncommon amid the common. That is where I allow myself the luxuries of sneaking details that--if they were missing--wouldn't impact the plot. Silly things like how dust is applied to shelves or why guys are wearing flip-flops in the dead of winter. I indulge my love of creating fantastical explanations for the one-offs in our everyday lives. I try not to be heavyhanded with them, but they do make me snicker.

In the end, worldbuilding indulgences are a lot like pepper on pasta. Flavor enhancements.