Jane Lindskold's Blog, page 128

Little Bits of Eclectic Knowledge

This past Sunday, I had the pleasure of talking for an hour with Joe Barrett, who will be reading the audiobook version of Artemis Invaded.�� Joe also read Artemis Awakening, so I was familiar with both his enthusiasm for his work and his attention to detail.

Persephone Purruses Eclectic Elements

Some of his questions were about typos, since he was working from an uncorrected proof.�� Some were about pronunciation.�� However, he was also interested in details about the characters and setting, so he���d be certain how to present them.

Occasionally, I feared that I was giving Joe more than he either wanted or needed, but I felt reassured when ��� after one micro-lecture on the relationship between Greek and Latin variations of the same name ��� he laughed and said, ���I really love your little bits of eclectic knowledge.����� Then he paused, obviously afraid he���d insulted me by assuming I wasn���t an authority on all these topics.

I was quick to reassure him that, like most writers I know, I���m a magpie, collecting weird details and cool bits of information into a shiny treasure hoard that then finds its way into whatever I���m writing.

This treasure heap doesn���t accumulate by accident.�� One thing my Friday Fragments does not include is the extensive reading I do in shorter formats ��� especially magazine articles.�� We take several general interest magazines, a couple on archeology, one of photography, and, just to keep my mind fresh, I occasionally raid the periodicals section of the library for magazines I���m either thinking about subscribing to or that I���d never subscribe to, but that are interesting in small doses.

How often some randomly acquired bit of information comes in useful hit me this past weekend, when Jan and Steve (S.M.) Stirling came over for dinner.�� Over the years, Jim and I have often had the pleasure of hearing Steve talk about a project when he���s in the process of evolving it, so after dinner ��� swearing ourselves to deepest, blackest secrecy ��� we asked Steve if he had anything new in mind.

Steve nodded and began telling us about a project he���s still evolving.�� Eventually, I commented, ���Did you know that�������� Steve didn���t, and I���ve promised that we���ll copy the article and send it along to him.�� It was a really minor point, but just the sort of thing that adds an extra bit of shading to a tale.

Unlike some writers, who write their SF/F in a setting clearly recognizable as belonging to Earth���s own history, unless I���m writing something actually set here, I enjoy evolving my own variants.�� That���s when the hoard of interesting information comes in particularly handy.

This shouldn���t be taken as a deliberate mixing of elements, like spices in a recipe.�� There���s no ���Take one teaspoon Mayan extract, blend into a flour ground from Germany pre-Bismark, shake over a fillet cut from Meiji era Japan, and saut�� in last summer���s windstorm.����� Instead, for me, the pleasure is when some little bit of something sparks a revelation as to how my characters might deal with a problem or how particular governmental system might evolve in a certain situation or why they���d wear a certain sort of clothing or armor.

As I���ve been reviewing the over sixty short stories I���ve had published to this point (two more later this year will make a round seventy), I���ve had a vivid illustration as to how often a story owed its genesis or some key element to a small detail picked out of my glittering hoard.�� For the reader���s amusement, I���ve include many of these in the short after=pieces that I���ve written to go with each story.

Now duty calls����� I���m about to go cut apart a truly gigantic pumpkin that looks as if it cross-hybridized with some other squash.�� I wonder if the differences will be more than skin deep?�� What color will the flesh be?�� Seed shape?�� Flavor?

Wait!�� Pumpkins originated in North America.�� When did Cinderella���s carriage become a pumpkin?�� The French word comes from a Greek word that was usually applied to melons���

Hmm����� I wonder how different Cinderella���s journey might have been if her carriage had been made from a watermelon?

FF: Inverted Formats

Stories with pictures (graphic novels) and stories without print (audiobooks).�� ��I watch T.V. and read print, because I prefer my anime subtitled.�� I���ve definitely juggled the formats in which I get my story fix.

Persephone Purruses

For those of you who are new to this feature, the FF feature lists of what I���ve read over the past week.�� They are not meant to be a recommendation list.�� If you���re interested in a not-at-all-inclusive list, you can look on my website.

Really, this is not a book review column.�� It���s just a list with, maybe, a few opinions tossed in.

Recently Completed:

Saga by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples.�� Graphic novel.�� Volumes 1-4.�� Excellent pairing of art and text.�� The story is gripping.�� Sex is a big component, but so is parenthood.�� Some of the character designs must be taken as metaphor����� But that works.

In Progress:

Komarr by Lois McMaster Bujold.�� Audiobook.�� Didn���t have as much time to listen this week, but am enjoying so far.

Unexpected Magic: Collected Stories by Diana Wynne Jones.�� I happened across this volume before the holidays, then set it by for the right time.�� Just starting on ���The Girl Jones.���

Also:

I���ve finished assembling the short stories, I think.�� I���ve chosen nineteen from my nearly seventy published.�� I���m trying to decide whether to go for a round twenty or stay with nineteen.�� I like odd numbers, especially prime numbers����� Hmm���

Cats and Triffids

Interested in winning an Advanced Review Copy of this June���s release Artemis Invaded?�� Head over to the Jane Lindskold Facebook page for details on the contest that starts today!

JANE: So, Alan, you were telling me about how cat-friendly New Zealand is, and how

Kel in Her Natural Habitat

your cats wander freely around outside.

ALAN:�� Yes, they go wherever they wish to go. The only fly in the ointment is that they might kill native birds and reptiles which (since New Zealand has no native predators) are quite easy prey. However, my cats mostly bring home rats, mice, and sparrows, along with the occasional blackbird. They’ve almost never brought home anything native.

JANE: That���s interesting ��� and good.�� I was avoiding bringing up the fact that domestic cats are ��� in most parts of the world ��� an invasive species, because lots of people don���t want to face the fact that beloved Tabby is not a natural part of the wilds.�� I���d heard that the kiwi bird was being endangered because it was being hunted by domestic cats.�� Is there any truth to this?

ALAN: Indeed there is. And it isn’t just kiwis ��� we have many unique species, some of which do indeed hover on the brink of extinction as a result of predation.

JANE: Is there anything that can be done?

ALAN: There is a movement in New Zealand to make it illegal for cats to wander unaccompanied. An eccentric millionaire called Gareth Morgan is particularly vocal about this and has put a lot of money into the campaign, so far to no avail.

JANE: Interesting.�� I could see why it would be hard to enforce, although if animals are ���chipped��� there, the way it���s becoming common here (it���s required in Albuquerque, even for indoor-only cats), it would be possible to trace the owners of unsupervised animals and fine them.

If you could catch the cat, of course, and hold it long enough to read the chip.

ALAN: Chipping is a legal requirement for dogs, though not (yet) for cats. However, while cats are certainly responsible for killing some native wild life, cats are actually far outnumbered by rats, weasels, stoats and ferrets ��� introduced predators that live freely in the wild and which are much more destructive of the native wild life than are well-fed domestic moggies.

JANE:�� I���m guessing that rats came via ship, uninvited, but do you know how the weasels, ferrets and stoats got there?�� What were they introduced to predate upon?

ALAN: That’s a bit complicated. In the mid-nineteenth century rabbits were brought to New Zealand for both food and sport. Being rabbits, they immediately had a huge population explosion and got out of control, to the despair of the farmers whose crops they were eating. So in the 1880s, stoats, weasels and ferrets were deliberately introduced in a vain attempt to try and curb the rabbit population. Unfortunately, the stoats, weasels and ferrets seemed to prefer dining on native New Zealand animals rather than on rabbits, and so the rabbits remain a problem to this day!

JANE: Australia had a problem with rabbits, too.�� I recall a truly horrible description of hordes of rabbits dying in the summer drought that was the centerpiece of one of Arthur Upfield���s novels.

How does New Zealand cope with these feral predators?

ALAN: We have a government department (the Department of Conservation, known as DOC) whose brief is to look after the native wild life. To that end, they have put a lot of effort into making many offshore islands predator free, and these are kept as sanctuaries for the wildlife. There are also several areas on the mainland that are enclosed by predator-proof fences which are maintained as sanctuaries.

JANE: Does this technique work well?

ALAN: Yes it does. Their greatest success has been with the black robin. By 1980 there were only 5 black robins left alive, and there was only one breeding pair. The female was called Old Blue. To try and reverse the decline of the robin, DOC implemented an ingenious conservation effort. Every time Old Blue laid a clutch of eggs, they were removed from her nest and given to a tomtit to foster. Then Old Blue, having lost her eggs, would lay another clutch…

JANE: That���s really neat ��� although the tomtits must have been confused.�� How did this work out?

ALAN: Today, there are more than 200 black robins ��� all descended from Old Blue and all living safely on a predator-free island. Old Blue herself lived to be 14 years old, a true matriarch.

JANE: Mother of her race, indeed.�� Of course, without much genetic diversity, they���re still a very fragile population ��� rather like cheetahs.�� Still, given the option, it���s a good effort.

Although I applaud the program to save the black robin, it isn���t really dealing with the invasive species ��� instead, it���s imprisoning the victims.�� I don���t know if any similar efforts have been made in the U.S.�� (although some of our readers might).

Here in the Southwest, where I live, the issue of invasive species of plants is a serious one ��� especially given the scarcity of water. A good example is the tamarisk, also called the salt cedar.�� It was brought to the U.S. in the early 19th century, valued both for its appearance and for its ability to thrive in salty soils.

However, tamarisk is a heavy water user that propagates more easily than many native plants in the bosque�� (that���s what we call the forested areas along the rivers here in New Mexico).�� As a result, there are entire areas that are nothing but tangles of tamarisk.

Currently, there is an effort being made to eradicate tamarisk and replace it with native plants, but it���s not easy.�� Whenever I see them, I���m reminded of your iconic (in that it���s the source of your nickname) SF novel: Day of the Triffids, because, like the creatures in Wyndam���s novel, tamarisk was introduced for many good reasons and proved to be a plague.

Does New Zealand have its own triffids?

ALAN: Indeed it does ��� gorse has been here since the early nineteenth century. Charles Darwin recorded seeing it in 1835 and it was very well established then. It was originally introduced to be used for hedging on farms, but it quickly got out of control. It loves the conditions here and it spreads like wildfire. In summer, the hills are covered with yellow blooms as far as the eye can see, and so are the farmers’ fields. Everyone hates it and millions of dollars are spent trying to control or eradicate it, with little success.

There used to be a wonderful advert on TV for a spray that could be used to control gorse outbreaks. An angry farmer is shown flying his helicopter over his fields and spraying the gorse, swearing and cursing at the terrible weed. But the spray takes a long time to work, of course, and the farmer simply can’t contain his impatience and his anger. So, in a fit of fury, he turns his helicopter upside down and uses the rotor blades to trim the gorse right back to the ground. Then he flies home, satisfied with a job well done. The name of the spray is superimposed on the picture and a voice-over suggests that it might be better to use the spray instead of trying to turn your helicopter into a massive weed-eater…

I haven’t seen the advert for several years now which is a pity. I always enjoyed it!

JANE: Definitely creative and amusing���

There���s a lot more to be said about the subject of invasive species, both in your country and mine.�� Shall we continue next week?

ALAN: Yes, let’s.

Artemis Invaded Cover Art and More!

News Flash: Darynda Jones, who I interviewed��a couple Wanderings ago, will be the guest speaker at this week���s meeting of the Albuquerque SF Society.�� She���s speaking about ���Story Beginnings ��� Getting the Hook into Readers.��� ��For more details, click here.

News Flash: Just this week, I added a new page to my website.�� ���The Universe of Artemis Awakening��� contains a lot more than the list of titles featured on most such pages.�� Regular readers of the Wednesday Wanderings will find previously scattered information grouped in one place. ����There is information about the audiobook, a link to the popular ���What would your Profession Be?��� quiz, and a host of reviews.�� There���s the beginning of a fan art gallery (and not all art is visual), which I hope to expand in the months to come.

Contests ��� several of which are planned in anticipation of the release of Artemis Invaded at the end of June ��� will also be listed here.

Interested in turning a friend on to the series?�� Here���s a place to start.�� Take a look at the Universe of Artemis Awakening��here��or by going to the Novels page on my website.

Artemis Invaded Cover Art

And now for our featured presentation: The Cover Art for Artemis Invaded!

As with Artemis Awakening, the cover art is by Cliff Nielsen. It carries on the motif from the previous book, but with some interesting twists.�� The half-face is positioned to the right, rather than the left, so I don���t think this one will be a wrap-around. (I don���t know for sure, since I have only seen a digital image.)

For Artemis Invaded, instead of a stylized puma���s face, we have that of a young woman, her hair and part of her features melding with the star field.

In many reviews, the cover art for Artemis Awakening attracted a lot of attention.�� What do you think about this one?�� Will it stand out when shelved with other offerings or blend in?

I���m too close to the book to be able to make a fair call.�� I���d love to hear what you think.

People have been asking me to drop a hint or two as to what Artemis Invaded is about.�� Since the Advanced Review copies (ARCs) are now out and the book is available for pre-order, let���s see what I can add���

SPOILER WARNING for Artemis Awakening.�� (I���ll try to be coy, but if there���s a way to talk about the second book in a series without giving something away about the first, I haven���t figured it out!)

At the beginning of Artemis Invaded, Griffin must accept that the Sanctum in Spirit Bay is not going to be able to offer him the means to contact his orbiting ship.�� (It���s called the Howard Carter, by the by���)

Terrell and Adara aren���t about to abandon him, though.�� Terrell suggests they try a remote mountain fastness called Maiden���s Tear.�� As Terrell says in the second paragraph:

������Maiden���s Tear has been a forbidden area since before the slaughter of the seegnur and death of machines.�� There were other such prohibited zones, but they were not as absolutely off-limits as Maiden���s Tear seems to have been.���

Since forbidden areas were often off-limits because they held concealed technological bases, Maiden���s Tear seems like a promising destination.���� However, will they ever get there?�� Before the trio can even lay the groundwork for their departure ��� Griffin is attacked.

Hmm����� Maybe I���d better stop there.�� I could get seriously carried away.�� Instead, let me say a little bit about why I���m excited about Artemis Invaded.

The first book in the series, Artemis Awakening, was a lot of fun to write, but there���s a lot of set-up involved in writing a book with a complex new setting and history ��� especially if the book is fairly short.�� Short?�� Let me show you some figures.�� In hardcover, Artemis Awakening was 304 pages.�� Through Wolf���s Eyes, the first of the Firekeeper Saga, was, by contrast, 590 pages ��� and printed in a slightly smaller font.

So, with Artemis Awakening a greater percentage of the book had to be devoted to basics of who is who and how the society is set up.�� I enjoy this sort of thing but, with that done, in Artemis Invaded, I could focus more on plot and characters.

I also got to move more deeply into the complexities underlying the planet Artemis.�� My main characters don���t stay static, either.�� By the end of Artemis Awakening, both Terrell and Adara have learned some very disturbing things about themselves.�� In Artemis Invaded, I get to deal with these.

Oh, yeah, and then there���s the ���invaded��� part����� Artemis Invaded isn���t a switchover to military SF, but invasions can take many forms and this one holds some real shocks for all sides.

I���m really excited about Artemis Invaded.�� I hope you���re getting excited, too!�� Over the next few weeks, we���re running a couple of contests where you can win an ARC and be among the few to read the book before its release.�� The contests will be announced in the Wednesday Wanderings but, if you���re afraid you���ll miss one, you can sign up for my new mailing list.

Oh! ��Maybe I should tell you. ��The first ARC contest will begin tomorrow. ��Go over to the Jane Lindskold Facebook page for details!

FF: Read On!

Winter View Outside My Window

Despite our usual warm trend — the one that makes me hope the cold is going to quit early — it’s still winter. ��So why not climb into a good book?

For those of you who are new to this feature, the FF feature lists of what I���ve read over the past week.�� They are not meant to be a recommendation list.�� If you���re interested in a not-at-all-inclusive list, you can look on my website.

This is not a book review column.�� It���s just a list with, maybe, a few opinions tossed in.

Recently Completed:

A Brother���s Cold Case by Dennis Herrick.�� A good mystery with lots of local NM color.

Memory by Lois McMaster Bujold.�� Audiobook.�� I really liked this one, possibly best of those I���ve read so far.�� One line stuck with me: ���The one thing you can���t trade for your heart���s desire is your heart.���

Forerunner: The Second Venture by Andre Norton.�� Much longer and somewhat less vivid than the first book in the series.

In Progress:

Komarr by Lois McMaster Bujold.�� Audiobook.�� Just starting.

Saga by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples. ��Graphic novel. ��Just starting.

Also:

More of my own short fiction.�� I���m almost done selecting pieces for the collection, but I need to write an introduction.�� And then start going over everything again!

Several of the books I’ve read or listened to this month have been because of recommendations from friends. ��(Chad, thanks for talking up��Memory! ��Sally and Tori, thanks for the loans.)

What are��you reading?

TT: This Land is Whose Land?

JANE: ��We’ve been chatting about moving with cats. ��Although my cats don���t go outside, I did have a fascinating experience with just how sophisticated animals can be in figuring out who owns what where.�� It���s a longish story.�� Are you up to it?

ALAN: Indeed I am. Go for it!

Lurking Cthulu

JANE: It started with a phone call.

���Hey, Dad.�� A wrinkle has come up in our plans to visit you.�� We���d need to bring two of the cats.�� Talli has a U.T. infection and he won���t let anyone but me give him his meds.�� We���d need to bring Arawn as company for him, because Talli���ll panic if he���s alone.���

Dad grumbled a bit, but said, ���Bring the damn cats.���

And so we did����� The drive from our part of New Mexico to where my dad lived in Colorado took about eight hours.�� Jim and I usually started after he got off work, then stayed in a motel overnight, rather than arrive after Dad was in bed.

Arawn and Talli had stayed in motels before, and Arawn in particular was thrilled.�� At home, he���d always been under-cat to Gwydion.�� That night, while Talli curled up next to us, Arawn sat in the window, surveying all and pronouncing his new realm Good.

ALAN: Oh yes ��� I know that posture very well indeed.

JANE: The next day, we completed our drive.�� Dad lived in the mountains, without another house in sight.�� If Arawn had been thrilled with a motel exterior, he was even more thrilled with evergreen forest, especially with the gigantic wild turkeys, which he clearly thought were dinosaurs.

ALAN: And who’s to say he was wrong?

JANE: I���m certainly not going to argue, those birds are huge.�� And, oddly, their footprints do look a great deal like some (only slightly smaller) fossilized dinosaur prints that Dad showed us not very far from his home����� But I wander off point.

Talli was also interested in this new place, up to the moment when he was going through Dad���s living room. This had a two-story ceiling with a ceiling fan at the peak.�� Talli decided that the slowly moving fan was Cthulu, and that Cthulu was going to eat him.�� He fled, but his choice of refuge puzzled us.

ALAN: Where did he go?

JANE: Rather than diving under something, which would make sense, since he was afraid of a monster on high, Talli fled through the house, all the way back to the mudroom that was the first indoor area beyond Dad���s back door.�� Although there was furniture to hide under, he didn���t go under anything, nor did he try to get out.�� Instead, he hunkered patiently in the doorway between the kitchen and the mudroom.

Some hours later, my brother (who at that point lived down the road) arrived, bringing with him his large mixed-breed dog, Otis.�� Now, my cats don���t have any dogs, but we hadn���t figured there would be any problems with Otis since Dad never let him further into the house than the mudroom.

And, additionally, Otis was a very Good Dog, with a cat of his own, so he knew how to behave around cats.

When Otis came in, we all expected Talli to back off or hide.�� Instead, he marched right up to Otis and touched noses.

We were astonished.�� They���d met only once before, in New Mexico, but Talli clearly not only remembered Otis, but also, when he���d needed a refuge, he���d gone to the one room that smelled like the territory of someone he knew.

ALAN: That’s amazing. After years of living with cats, I am quite convinced that they always have their own subtle reasons for everything they do

JANE:�� I agree.�� All those generalizations about animals ��� like ���cats don���t like change��� or ���dogs will chase cats��� ��� are as misplaced as similar statements regarding humans, like ���men are������ or ���women are������

You were telling me about your cats getting used to their new territory and squabbling with the cats who have already staked their claim.

ALAN: Yes ��� we’ve heard a lot of hissing and caterwauling in the night, and Robin has found several huge clumps of fur in the garden. It’s the wrong colour to have come from Harpo or Bess, so obviously they’ve been asserting themselves with some degree of success.

JANE: Knowing that my cats were outside fighting other cats would make me very nervous.�� My cats are indoor only.�� I don���t know what the statistics are for New Zealand but, here in the U.S., the average lifespan of a domestic cat drops to under half for outdoor cats.�� In our neighborhood, where coyotes occasionally dip in for a snack, it���s probably lower.�� I know more than one neighbor who has become a convert to keeping their cats inside.

Domestic cats are actually a great danger to each other, because their bites and scratches have a great chance of becoming abscessed.�� I���d just as soon not deal with that ��� or with the diseases they can pick up.

And then there are cars����� Nope.�� My cats are staying in.

ALAN: Domestic cats are the largest predators in New Zealand, apart from motor cars. So as long as the cats stay away from roads, they have nothing at all to fear. All my cats have always been outside cats and, apart from Eccles who was run over by a car when he was five, they have all lived to a ripe old age. I have only once had to cope with abscessed wounds from a cat fight ��� poor Ginger had to wear an Elizabethan collar for a couple of weeks to stop her licking the wound. She didn’t like that! But it cleared up without any trouble, By and large, the New Zealand environment is very cat friendly.

JANE: Ah��� this raises an interesting thought but, since it���s a pretty complicated issue, I want to save it for next week.

I���d still like to avoid it ��� but only until next week!

To Theme or Not to Theme

A couple of cool announcements, before moving to today���s wander���

Artemis Awakening made Locus magazine���s list of recommended reading for 2014.�� Needless to say, I���m thrilled!

I now have a mailing list.�� Sign up for announcements of contests and new releases.�� Even if you���re a regular reader of the Wednesday Wanderings, you may find this useful for those weeks when you get busy.�� Don���t worry!�� Your information is not going to be used anywhere else and alerts will be limited. ��Oh! ��You can also sign up on my website home page or on my Facebook page.

Fantastic Anthologies

Award-winning audiobook reader Joe Barrett has been signed on to continue reading the ���Artemis Awakening��� series with June���s release, Artemis Invaded.

As I mentioned in last week���s interview with Darynda Jones, one of my current projects is assembling the short story collection you folks requested last year.�� As I was writing the afterwords that follow each piece, I found myself thinking about theme anthologies and the role they played when I was getting started ��� and continue to play even today.

I���d better clarify that: by theme anthologies, I mean those anthologies for which original works are solicited ��� not reprint anthologies for which an editor collects already printed stories that fit a particular theme.

Theme anthologies have never been given the same respect that the magazines have.�� I once heard a then high-end magazine editor lament, ���I don���t see why writers submit to these!�� I���ll let them write about anything they want.���

Leaving aside that this is hardly true, I���d like to focus in on why I have always found theme anthologies appealing.

While every writer has more story ideas than he or she has time to write, an idea is not necessarily a story.�� To me, an idea is a seed.�� The story is a full-grown tree.�� This is why writers are not thrilled when someone says, ���Hey!�� I���ve a great idea for a story.�� How about I tell it to you, you write it, and we split the money?���

So why, if a writer has all these ideas, would writing for a theme anthology be appealing?�� Wouldn���t that impose an unwanted constraint?

Rather than being constricting, theme anthologies can provide a challenge.�� Whenever I���ve been interested in a theme anthology, I���ve always tried to write a story that will provide a different take on the theme.�� The first thing I do is make a list of all the most common takes on the designated theme.�� Then I try to find a different twist.

The ���Fantastic��� anthology series edited by Martin H. Greenberg with various co-editors, and published by DAW books, provides a good example of these anthology themes.

I���ve had stories in Dragon Fantastic, Fantastic Alice, Cat Fantastic IV, Elf Fantastic, Wizard Fantastic, Spell Fantastic, Assassin Fantastic, Apprentice Fantastic, and Pharaoh Fantastic. There were many other ���Fantastic��� anthologies to which I did not contribute.

Sometimes a theme anthology provides a writer with the opportunity to explore an idea or expand a location.�� ���A Touch of Poison,��� my story in Assassin�� Fantastic, is set in the same world as the Firekeeper stories, but does not feature any of the characters or settings from the novels. ��It did give me a chance to explore Waterland, which Firekeeper heard about, but never reached.

At other times, I���ve used theme anthologies to tell a character���s back story.�� ���Beneath the Eye of the Hawk��� in Pharaoh Fantastic is a prequel to The Buried Pyramid.�� ���Fever Waking��� in Children of Magic tells of the childhood of Ynamynet, a key character in Wolf���s Blood.

One time I received three separate anthology invitations with deadlines close together.�� I really wanted to write for them, but wasn���t sure I could manage all the background material.�� One of these anthologies, Maiden, Matron, Crone, pretty much demanded a story with a central female character.�� It hit me that I could write three stories ��� each fully independent ��� about the same person.�� I wrote ���Seeking Gold��� for Maiden, Matron, Crone, then expanded Andrasta���s story in ���Fire from the Sun��� in Women of War, and ���Comes Forth��� for In the Shadow of Evil.

I���m not the only author to find theme anthologies inspirational.�� Roger Zelazny���s award-winning novella, ���Unicorn Variation��� was written to fit into three different (reprint, in this case) anthologies.�� You don���t have to take my word for it.�� He writes about the story���s genesis in the introduction to the story in his collection Unicorn Variations.�� It���s a fun anecdote ��� and a good story, too.

Readers seem to like theme anthologies.�� I���ve had many tell me they hunted out the ���Fantastic��� anthology series because they would be assured of a degree of variety and creativity, but without the sense of ���potluck��� they got from many of the magazines.�� ����Andre Norton���s Cat Fantastic anthologies went to multiple volumes.�� As I noted above, I have a story in number four.

Oh, and that editor whose lament I quoted earlier in this piece.�� Funny thing.�� Several of his most recent projects have been theme anthologies.�� I guess he finally saw the appeal.

Sink into a Good Book

Spending more hours at my desk this week, but still some time for reading���

For those of you who are new to this feature, the FF feature lists of what I���ve read over the past week.�� They are not meant to be a recommendation list.�� If you���re interested in a not-at-all-inclusive list, you can look on my website.

Kel Sinks In

This is not a book review column.�� It���s just a list with, maybe, a few opinions tossed in.

Recently Completed:

Tamsin by Peter Beagle.�� Audiobook.�� Read by Peter Beagle.�� I���m still not precisely certain why all the material set in NYC couldn���t have been condensed to one chapter.�� That said, I found it smooth reading.�� The book really became a ���don���t want to stop��� once the setting shifted to Dorset, though.�� I loved both the conclusion of the plot and Jenny���s final conversation with a hedgehog.�� And Beagle was a very engaging reader ��� one who could make you forget that a man was reading a story narrated by a teenaged girl.

Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer.�� Although smoothly, even richly written, with a well-designed setting (although one that held surprisingly few ���oh, wows��� for me), this book confirmed that, for me, great writing and cool premise can���t trump strong characters.

In Progress:

A Brother���s�� Cold Case by Dennis Herrick.�� I���m a sucker for mysteries where current events are rooted in past events.

Memory by Lois McMaster Bujold.�� Audiobook.�� This time the runaway train seems to be in Miles���s own neurological system.�� I���m only just started, but I have a strong suspicion of what happened.�� Be fun to find out if I���m right!

Also:

After cleaning up lots of administrative stuff, I���m back to re-reading my own short fiction for the collection you folks requested.�� As I commented to Darynda Jones in our recent interview, I���ve discovered that, in the afterpieces, I���m writing about writing again���

Seems to be an addiction.

TT: Cats in Strange Places

News Flash: Darynda Jones interviewed me, focusing in on��my new book,��Wanderings on Writing. ��It’s really lots of fun.

JANE: Last time, duty called before I got to tell you about my cats and motels.

ALAN: Yes! That sounds like a story with possibilities. Tell me more.

Rhiannon Shelves Herself

JANE: Years ago, when I was planning my cross-country move between Virginia and New Mexico, I received many warnings about how badly my cats would take spending the night other than where they were accustomed.�� I received much advice ��� bring the cats��� baskets, toys, favorite blankets and other comfort items, recorded music they know to provide a familiar audio background, preferred foods, water from home, and more.

If I had followed this, it would have necessitated my having a much larger vehicle than my small sedan, since it was already filled pretty much to the brim with two humans, six cats in carriers, their litter boxes and other gear, my computer, a few other things I didn���t want to trust to movers, and a small amount of clothing.

ALAN: I’d have given you the same advice. How did it work out?�� Did the cats panic without their accustomed comforts?

JANE: Not at all.�� Only one, Mannawyddan, who was the shyest in any case, was at all upset.�� The other five checked out the room, admired the king-sized bed (mine is only full-sized), located where I���d put their litter boxes and other comforts, then marched to the door into the motel corridor, clearly expecting me to let them out to see their new domain.

The second night on the road, even Mannawyddan wanted to go see the motel.

ALAN: I’ve never had to put my cats in a motel ��� pretty much everywhere here can be reached in one day. But I have had to move cats into new homes, and I’ve been amazed at the different coping methods they’ve used the first time they see their new home.

JANE: My cats have reacted to new houses much as they did to motels ��� a little trepidation, then easy adjustment.�� What are some of the different tactics you���ve seen your cats use?

ALAN: The first cats I moved with were Ginger and Milo. They were brother and sister, so you might have expected them to react similarly. But no. Ginger explored the house using a strict left hand rule. She kept her left side close to the wall so that she only had to guard her right hand side from hidden perils. She examined every room like that, then she was happy.

JANE: That���s very clever!�� She also would have been good at solving mazes, since I think the tracing one wall is a recommended way to solve them.

What did Milo do?

ALAN: Milo adopted a different, but just as effective, technique. He started from his food bowl where he took a fortifying nibble. Then, suitably fortified, he set off in a straight line until his courage failed him. Then he came back to his bowl, had another nibble, and did it all over again in a new direction.

JANE: Courage in food.�� Very feline.�� Very human, now that I think about it.

What did Harpo and Bess do?

ALAN: Harpo and Bess are not related so, not surprisingly, they reacted very differently. By and large, Bess was actually much braver than Harpo. She was quick to come out of her travelling cage and she looked around her wide-eyed and amazed. Who knew there were such places in the world? She made sure that Robin and I were always in sight and she walked with us hither and yon and it wasn’t long before she was reasonably comfortable with the strange new rooms.

Harpo, on the other hand, initially refused to come out of his cage at all. When we finally poured him out, he quickly found a dark corner to huddle in, and there he stayed complaining bitterly at the unfairness of it all. I assume he had little explores here and there during the night when we weren’t looking because we found traces of him in the morning ��� vomited-up fur balls and the like ��� but mainly he just huddled and howled.

JANE: Poor baby!�� The mighty hunter missed his accustomed jungle.

ALAN: All the advice we got said to keep them inside the house for a fortnight to get them used to the look and feel and smell of the place before we let them outside. If we let them out too soon, said the pundits, they might start to hitchhike back to Wellington. However, Harpo has always been an outside cat and after three days of almost non-stop howling, we couldn’t stand it anymore, and so we opened a door and showed him the world. He looked at it suspiciously and then trotted outside to explore the garden. He quickly found a nice soft pile of earth to empty himself into (Robin’s herb garden) and then he was happy. He jumped over the fence into next door’s garden and vanished. We worried about him all day, but he was back by tea time, so we considered him properly settled in.

JANE:�� Good fertilizer for the garden.�� You can thank Harpo when you have gigantic parsley.�� Back when I lived in Virginia, I happened to look out the window right when a neighborhood cat was leaving a deposit in my vegetable garden.�� The plant to which he had tended grew markedly larger than one just a foot or so away.

What did Bess do once the wide open spaces were available to her?

ALAN: She’s always been much more of an inside cat. She is used to coming and going at will, but mostly she stays asleep inside. Initially, she refused to go outside at all (far too scary). One day she did take a few tentative steps into the garden, but a leaf spiralled down from a tree and spooked her and she dashed back inside. She spent a lot of time staring out of the window and she saw a lot of birds ��� she likes birds. Eventually, they tempted her outside. She’s not brought any back yet, so I think they are wise in the ways of cats. Now she is coming and going as she pleases, so she too is now feeling properly at home.

The next big adventure will be territorial disputes. We’ve seen several other cats around so sooner or later the borders will have to be settled…

JANE: Ah, questions of territory.�� That���s a complicated issue. I���ve got an interesting story, but I���ll save it for next time.

Chatting With Darynda Jones

JANE: Today, I���m talking with Darynda Jones, author of the phenomenally popular, award-winning Charley Davidson Series.���� (If you haven���t read these, they���re darkly humorous, rather as if Janet Evanovich���s Stephanie Plum learned she had been born with a really dangerous supernatural destiny.)�� Darynda is also the author of the YA Darklight Trilogy.

I Love the Red Cover Particularly

I first met Darynda at Bubonicon, New Mexico���s SF convention.�� As I recall, we were both at the opening ceremonies and Craig Chrissinger, one of the con chairs, introduced us, telling me that Darynda was a new writer, with her first novel either coming out soon or just out.���� I don���t remember which, and since First Grave on the Right was a February release, I can���t say for sure.

Any chance you do, Darynda?

DARYNDA: HA! I can barely remember my children���s names, a fact they find annoying. While I definitely remember meeting you that first time (as I was beyond honored), I do not remember where I was at career-wise. Those early days are kind of a blur, and I���ve only been published four years.

JANE: Just four years and all those books?�� Astonishing!

All right, then.�� I always start these interviews with the same question, so here goes:

In my experience, writers fall into two general categories: those who have been writing stories since before they could actually write and those who came to writing somewhat later.

Which sort are you?

DARYNDA: I am of the former sort. I started writing before I could actually write and would even pick up sticks and any random piece of paper floating by and pretend to write my masterpieces. Oddly enough, I started writing plays first and would then put on very elaborate productions, but since I couldn���t actually write and my actors had no written lines to memorize (nor could they read), the plays quickly deteriorated into chaos. Good times, baby.

JANE: You have mentioned several times that the late Jack Williamson ��� author of such phenomenal classic SF novels as Darker Than You Think and The Humaniods ��� was one of your teachers.�� Can you talk a little about that?

DARYNDA: Yes! I had the enormous honor of taking a class with him before he passed away, God rest his soul. It was like sitting in the presence of greatness. We would start out the class with Dr. Patrice Caldwell, who is a force of nature and probably missed her true calling: standup comedy. Then the graduates would go to Dr. Williamson���s house, sit around his dining room table, and talk writing. It was surreal to say the least. I couldn���t get enough, and for the first time in my life, I was disappointed when the semester ended.

JANE: That really must have been wonderful.�� I met Jack several times and chatted with him a little, but I never had the chance for that sort of roundtable.�� I did get to contribute a story to The Williamson Effect, the collection in Jack���s honor, though.�� That was great���

Back when we did that book signing together, when both of us had new YA releases (I think mine was Fire Season), you mentioned that Charley Davidson and Lorelei, the protagonist of the Dark Light Trilogy, have a rather incestuous relationship, that Lorelei is, in a sense Charley���s older sister, even though she���s younger and lives in a different universe.

Could you share the story?

DARYNDA: Haha! Yes, Lorelei came before Charley by a couple of years. I wrote the first in that YA series then started on the Charley series and, believing the Darklight Trilogy would never sell, I cannibalized my own work by stealing many of the plot points and character traits from the YA. Huge ones. I even fashioned parts of Charley after Lorelei.

I paid for that. While Charley sold first, the YA trilogy sold about a year later, so I had to rethink my entire foundation and figure out how to set Lorelei apart. Thankfully, by then Charley had evolved into a much sassier, sarcastic version of Lorelei, so it wasn���t too difficult, but trying to reimagine the entire foundation of the YA trilogy for the next two books in the series was way harder than I thought it would be. Lesson learned.

JANE: I had a similar experience on a smaller scale.�� I didn���t think The Buried Pyramid would ever sell, so I borrowed traits from one of the secondary characters for Derian, in the Firekeeper books.�� Then my agent (who loved The Buried Pyramid) managed to sell it and I had to scramble to re-write.

One of the things that keeps me reading the Charley Davidson books is the odd balance of humor and really serious issues ��� including that Charley doesn���t always solve her case, or at least not to her satisfaction.

This is not something that one encounters often in this sort of book.�� What drew you in that direction?

DARYNDA: I wanted the series to be ongoing (thankfully, my editor did too), so I wanted to tie up most ends while leaving others unraveled until the next book, or even six books later. I wanted fresh questions to arise while old ones were being answered.

And, while fiction is not meant to be a mirror image of reality, sometimes the outcomes are just not what we want and I feel that fiction needs a little of that disappointment so we can be grateful for what does go our protagonist���s way. I think disappointment can be used to drive our characters. To force them to do better next time. To set goals. To learn from their mistakes.

Charley does a lot for the departed, and that right there is a conundrum. There���s really not a lot she can do for that character. He or she is already dead. But she can help the character find peace and give them the ability and the desire to move on.

JANE: That���s a really great insight as to why your characters have so much dimension.�� I appreciate it.

I���m sure you���ve been asked this a million times, so I���ll make it a million and one.�� Where did you get the idea of using quotations from tee-shirts, bumper stickers, and suchlike as chapter headings?�� Have you gotten to the point where you need to make them up or do you keep piles of catalogs?�� And has anyone ever offered to print up some of your quotes on shirts?

DARYNDA: You may not believe this but I have NEVER been asked that! Not once! I actually came up with the idea because I wanted to start off each chapter with a bang, and I was writing a scene in the first book where Charley was wearing a T-shirt to her college graduation that had ���jenius��� written on it. It cracked me up, especially considering the circumstance, and the idea to start every chapter with a T-shirt or bumper sticker quote hit me. I did a lot of research to make sure I could even put them in my books. I used to make up a couple per book, but I haven���t done that in a while.

I do keep a list of quotes I can use. I���d been saving them even before the idea hit me. Now I get a lot from readers. They are always sending me some great one- or two-liners. My assistants have created a Zazzle store called Grim Girl Apparel that has many of the quotes up for sale on various items, and what miniscule amount of money we make off them goes toward giveaways for the Grimlets, my street team.

JANE: That���s really cool����� And I am jazzed to have been the first to ask!�� Maybe there will be a spike in sales at Grim Girl Apparel.

One of my favorite more recent characters is Quentin, the Deaf boy who shares some of Charley���s sensitivity to the supernatural world.�� What gave you the impulse to create him?

DARYNDA: I do love me some Quentin, mostly because he is based on my oldest son, Jerrdan, and named after my little brother. I also have a degree in sign language interpreting, am a certified interpreter, and have taught ASL and interpreting as well. I guess because of all this, I really wanted a Deaf character in the books.

I love showing people tidbits about Deaf culture and what it���s like to be Deaf in a hearing world. They face 10 challenges for every one of ours, and my son amazes me every day. He is independent and strong and gorgeous. Both my sons are! And some of the stories I write about Quentin have really happened. (Not the seeing-dead-people thing, thank goodness.) But he is a joy to write about.

JANE: I won���t provide spoilers, but I���ve loved Amber���s attempts to communicate in sign language ��� especially the mistakes.

I���m not exactly a prude (my novel Smoke and Mirrors featured a prostitute as the main character), but sometimes the degree of violence in the sex scenes in the Charley books leaves me wondering why you took that direction.�� I noticed that this had backed off some in the most recent book, Seventh Grave and No Body.�� Any reason?

DARYNDA: I decided when I first began this series to go big or go home. I love action and I love writing it. The sex scenes are the hardest part of the whole story for me to write, and I am no prude either. I quite enjoy the act, but if I haven���t written a sex scene that makes your toes curl, I have not done my job.

Still, everyone is different. Some hate them. Most of my readers love them. Either way, I have to write both the action and the sex sequences according to my target audience, those who love paranormal/urban fantasy and romance. I read both. I know what my audience expects. And I love to keep my readers hovering on the edges of their seats, wondering what Charley will do next. It���s all about those surprise twists your readers never see coming. Keeping it fresh is what will bring your readers back again and again, and my readers are amazing. I���m horridly grateful for each and every one.

JANE: Practical����� And you���ve certainly made my toes curl, so you���re doing your job.

For those readers of this interview who haven���t yet tried Darynda���s books, I���d like to stress that there���s a lot more to them than hot sex and warped humor (although there���s both of those).�� The last couple of books in particular have started revealing what looks to be a complex supernatural conspiracy that has me completely hooked.

But, speaking of ���doing your job,��� I should let you go and do that.�� Thanks ever so much for your time!

DARYNDA: THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR HAVING ME!!!