Charlie Jane Anders's Blog, page 50
November 1, 2015
I wrote a book about two people who don’t even belong in the same story
Here’s everything you need to know about All the Birds in the Sky, my book that comes out in late January. It’s about a witch named Patricia and a mad scientist named Laurence—which means it’s basically 50 percent fantasy and 50 percent science fiction.
So it’s really the story of two people who don’t belong in the same story together, and their relationship. Laurence and Patricia meet when they’re kids, on the edge of puberty, and they survive the hell of middle school together. Then, they meet again as grown-ups 10 years later, and life is a lot more complicated. Their relationship becomes the thing that helps them figure out who they really are.
And meanwhile, Laurence has to try and understand Patricia’s incredible power, which isn’t like anything he knows. Patricia can talk to birds and even turn herself into a bird sometimes. She can do impossible things that science can’t even begin to explain. And when he meets her again as a grown-up, after she’s gone to the magical academy of Eltisley Hall, she’s become connected to a whole world of witches, with their own secret agenda. For Laurence, who is struggling to feel in control over his world, Patricia’s chaotic world is fascinating and scary.
I’m always fascinated by relationships between people who see the world in really different ways. It’s no accident that while I was working on this novel, I also wrote the story “Six Months, Three Days,” about a man who sees a single fixed future and a woman who sees many possible futures.
With this story, I got to ask some big questions about science and nature, and what humans are doing in this world. But the most important thing for me was always to tell a personal story about two people trying to understand each other — and finding out that they have more in common with each other than they do with anyone else.
And that’s really what became important to me in the course of writing this book. Sure, Laurence and Patricia come from two different worlds and have two very different ways of being powerful. But in the end, they actually understand each other better than anyone else understands them.
So this isn’t just a book about two people who belong in different stories, and what that difference means to each of them. It’s really about two unique people, and what they mean to each other.
The Phantom Tollbooth meant so much to me as a kid. So many...
The Phantom Tollbooth meant so much to me as a kid. So many brilliant moments of adventure and discovery in this book. I spent way too much time making a mural of the Mathemagician at my junior high school. Don’t think anybody got it.
October 31, 2015
Source unknown. From Doctor Who, “The Angels Take Manhattan.”
Source unknown. From Doctor Who, “The Angels Take Manhattan.”
October 30, 2015
When I was was a kid I missed seeing Douglas Adams at the local...
When I was was a kid I missed seeing Douglas Adams at the local bookstore because I was sick or away or something. My parents got me his autograph. I keep it by my desk. #myhero
"When you’re 95 years old and laying in a hospital bed, there will be a mechanical bear that..."
- ‘All Science Fiction Is Satire’: An Interview With 'Prez’ Writer Mark Russell : T-Lounge : Tech Times
October 29, 2015
My to-read pile is getting out of control.
My to-read pile is getting out of control.
"She would have given anything to be able to transform herself, or anything else, so her world wasn’t..."
- All the Birds in the Sky, Book 2, chapter 5.
October 28, 2015
the-shybooks:
My anxiety is high. I can’t say anything right. My head is killing me.
Hang in...
My anxiety is high. I can’t say anything right. My head is killing me.
Hang in there! I know how you feel. It will be OK, I promise.
