Cary Attwell's Blog, page 2
June 30, 2013
Housekeeping & sundry
Happy summer, everybody! I hope you're getting to enjoy whatever it is you enjoy of this lovely little season. Me, I get to be in school. (Hurrah, said nobody.) So, just a brief check-in today.
Some of you have added me on Google+ or LinkedIn or other things. I appreciate it so much when you guys take the time to reach out to me, and if I haven't responded to these adds, it's not because I'm snubbing you or anything; it's simply because I don't use those tools. I'm only currently active on Livejournal, Goodreads and Twitter. Of course, with my spotty updating record, you are well within your rights to laugh at my use of the word 'active'. (I'm also namesquatting on Tumblr, with ambiguous plans to do something with it if I ever get this next book off the ground.)
In other news, if you were one of the poor, unfortunate souls, as I was, who missed the Neverwhere radio play during its original airing on BBC Radio 4, YouTube has come to the rescue: Episode 1. Take an already brilliant story and add James McAvoy, Natalie Dormer and Benedict Cumberbatch? YES PLEASE.
Today was Seattle's Pride Parade. It was a hot, hot day and I managed to get a nice farmer's tan standing out there for about twenty minutes. Unfortunately, twenty minutes was about all I got to see of the parade, as I had other places to be (I think next year I should make it a point to actually attend rather than seeing a fraction of it by happenstance). Even so, being a part of it for that tiny portion was a pleasure; such a lovely, celebratory mood permeating the whole of downtown. Just beautiful.
Some of you have added me on Google+ or LinkedIn or other things. I appreciate it so much when you guys take the time to reach out to me, and if I haven't responded to these adds, it's not because I'm snubbing you or anything; it's simply because I don't use those tools. I'm only currently active on Livejournal, Goodreads and Twitter. Of course, with my spotty updating record, you are well within your rights to laugh at my use of the word 'active'. (I'm also namesquatting on Tumblr, with ambiguous plans to do something with it if I ever get this next book off the ground.)
In other news, if you were one of the poor, unfortunate souls, as I was, who missed the Neverwhere radio play during its original airing on BBC Radio 4, YouTube has come to the rescue: Episode 1. Take an already brilliant story and add James McAvoy, Natalie Dormer and Benedict Cumberbatch? YES PLEASE.
Today was Seattle's Pride Parade. It was a hot, hot day and I managed to get a nice farmer's tan standing out there for about twenty minutes. Unfortunately, twenty minutes was about all I got to see of the parade, as I had other places to be (I think next year I should make it a point to actually attend rather than seeing a fraction of it by happenstance). Even so, being a part of it for that tiny portion was a pleasure; such a lovely, celebratory mood permeating the whole of downtown. Just beautiful.
June 1, 2013
Jesse Eisenberg is my spirit animal
And I would like to be his best friend. Barring that, purveyor of things he writes, so I guess that's where we are today. Mostly this post is an excuse to link you to things I have recently enjoyed on the Internet.
Eisenberg's McSweeney's column Bream Gives Me Hiccups: Restaurant Reviews From a Privileged Nine-Year-Old is pretty much exactly what it says on the tin, and yet so much more. Simultaneously amusing, honest and heartbreaking. Seriously, I teared up reading the most recent one. (Caveat: I also tear up sometimes at Hallmark card commercials, so use that as your gauge for how emotionally unstable I am.)
You've probably seen Ryan Gosling Won't Eat His Cereal, but just in case this managed to give your attention the slip, here is, um, Ryan Gosling refusing to eat his cereal. I can't explain why it's so funny. It just is, okay?
I tweeted about this some time back, but it's still pretty much my favorite thing ever: Epic 23-Year Game of Tag. Totally insane and so inspired.
As mentioned in a previous post, Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett is only the best book ever on the face of the earth. (You think I suffer from hyperbole, but I do love that book something fierce.) Here, a comprehensive reference guide to Good Omens. Most excellent.
Joss Whedon was the commencement speaker at his alma mater Wesleyan this year. His speech is, quite simply, beautiful. Let's all aspire to be like him when we grow up, yes?
And we finish off with more Eisenberg. He's also a regular contributer to The New Yorker; recently he did a short script entitled Marv Albert is My Therapist. And then they got him and Marv Albert to perform it, to a nation's delight.
Eisenberg's McSweeney's column Bream Gives Me Hiccups: Restaurant Reviews From a Privileged Nine-Year-Old is pretty much exactly what it says on the tin, and yet so much more. Simultaneously amusing, honest and heartbreaking. Seriously, I teared up reading the most recent one. (Caveat: I also tear up sometimes at Hallmark card commercials, so use that as your gauge for how emotionally unstable I am.)
You've probably seen Ryan Gosling Won't Eat His Cereal, but just in case this managed to give your attention the slip, here is, um, Ryan Gosling refusing to eat his cereal. I can't explain why it's so funny. It just is, okay?
I tweeted about this some time back, but it's still pretty much my favorite thing ever: Epic 23-Year Game of Tag. Totally insane and so inspired.
As mentioned in a previous post, Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett is only the best book ever on the face of the earth. (You think I suffer from hyperbole, but I do love that book something fierce.) Here, a comprehensive reference guide to Good Omens. Most excellent.
Joss Whedon was the commencement speaker at his alma mater Wesleyan this year. His speech is, quite simply, beautiful. Let's all aspire to be like him when we grow up, yes?
And we finish off with more Eisenberg. He's also a regular contributer to The New Yorker; recently he did a short script entitled Marv Albert is My Therapist. And then they got him and Marv Albert to perform it, to a nation's delight.
May 16, 2013
May is Better Speech and Hearing Month!
If I had a quarter for every time I could quite clearly hear someone's music even though their earbuds were jammed into their earholes, I'd never have to scrounge for laundry money ever again. Ever! And while having unlimited laundry funds would be awesome for me, irreversible hearing loss is awesome for nobody. With the risk of hearing loss increasing in recent years, especially in younger populations (TIME), education and prevention is key. It's never too early to start, as with this video-book aimed at the littluns:
And the next time you see a loved one making their inner hair cells sad, perhaps some gentle accosting wouldn't go amiss. They'll thank you for it later. (Probably. I mean, I totally would.)
And the next time you see a loved one making their inner hair cells sad, perhaps some gentle accosting wouldn't go amiss. They'll thank you for it later. (Probably. I mean, I totally would.)
April 30, 2013
Conversations: Julie Bozza
A conversation between Julie Bozza, author of The Apothecary’s Garden, and Cary Attwell, author of The Other Guy. We hope you enjoy reading it as much as we enjoyed conversing!
Cary: I’m afraid I don’t have a much more interesting answer for this than: it’s what’s in my head at the moment. When I first got the basic idea for The Other Guy – guy gets dumped at the altar and is left to pick up the pieces – I knew my main character Emory would find love again, but at the time I didn’t know it would be with another man. It was only when I started writing the second chapter that his love interest Nate appeared in my head, and I just went with it.
But generally speaking, I write what I like to read, and since I enjoy reading m/m romances, I suppose it naturally spilled over into my writing.
What about you? You’ve been writing for many years; has your interest always been in m/m romance?
Julie: It has! Well, I made a (very) few desultory attempts to write stories during my teen years, and they tended to involve male–female romances. However, even then there was no denying that while I was fascinated by the relationships between Elizabeth Bennet and Mr Darcy, Aragorn and Arwen, and Romeo and Juliet, I was likewise intrigued by those between Judas and Jesus in Jesus Christ Superstar, Maurice and Alec in Maurice, and Romeo and Mercutio. I was rather innocent, mind you, and it was a very long time ago, but I got the same kind of charge from all these connections. In my somewhat less innocent early twenties, when I finally started trying to write seriously, I very quickly tended towards male–male romance as my genre of choice.
As for why… There have been some very interesting academic studies around the phenomenon of ‘slash’ (m/m) fan fiction, which have presented lots of interesting theories and reasons, most of which I agree with or can see the sense in. But when push comes to shove, it’s all about the writerly passion and the demands of my Muse… It’s a gut–deep urge, and there seems little point in denying it its due!
Julie: Like me, you have written fan fiction in the past. How does that intersect with your professional fiction?
Cary: There’s not much overlap at the moment. I don’t shy away from talking about one arena in the other, but I try not to shove it in people’s faces either as it may not be what they came for in the first place. So while I don’t explicitly talk about my alter ego in fandom or vice versa, it’s probably not difficult to figure out. That said, I do hope that our openly talking about fan fiction might help to diminish some of the stigma around it. Aside from fan fiction being a great expression of artistic appreciation, it’s been incredibly useful to me as a writer in terms of learning how to shape a plot, maintain characterization, etc. in a public setting. In a sense fan fiction has acted as a “soft opening” for me, as a way to hone my skills before letting loose the final product of an original novel. (Also, it’s a hell of a lot of fun and I’ve made so many wonderful friends through it! Hi Julie! :))
Julie: Hear, hear! I wish I had something intelligent to add at this point, but basically I agree with everything you just said. I love fan fiction for its own sake, but it’s also been a demanding and rewarding place in which to learn how to analyse character, stories, settings and style – and write accordingly. I have everything to be grateful for.
Cary: We’ve talked a little bit about “fantasy casting” for our novels before. Is that something that happens organically, like once you have the characters established you realize so–and–so would be great to play him, or do you tend to start off with a clear picture of someone and start building the character from there?
Julie: Each situation has probably been a bit different in this regard – though I suppose I generally start with an idea first, and then seek the characters, and then seek the plot. I certainly do ‘cast’ the film of the book in my head as an early part of the writing process. Sometimes that can be very problematic, though, if I can’t quite find the ideal ‘embodiment’ of my character – or if someone inappropriate is very insistent. (I had all kinds of trouble with Shelley in my Keats novel, because it took me ages to get past envisaging him as Julian Sands, who played him so memorably in the film Gothic!)
I suppose mostly this process happens organically, and then (ideally) the characters evolve into their own selves while I’m writing them anyway. I certainly had two particular actors in mind for Tom and Hilary in The Apothecary’s Garden – and hey, they can still be in the film if they like! – but the characters became rather different people to how I’d first envisaged them.
Julie: How do you do your research? In The Other Guy, your Thailand felt very real, as did the details of Emory’s work as a speech therapist. Where did the details and ‘authentic feel’ of that come from?
Cary: Well, first off, thank you! I’m so glad to hear that the little things came across well. In terms of details, TOG is probably a classic example of writing what you know. I’m currently studying to be a speech therapist, I’ve visited Thailand a couple of times, and Chicago, where the latter half of the story is based, was my home for a few years.
That’s not to say personal recollections are a wholly reasonable substitute for good, old–fashioned research! I managed to do the bulk of it online for TOG – travel blogs, forum posts, interviews, news articles – basically, whatever turned up in my search results I looked at. It got me running down a few rabbit holes, but I’d rather do too much research for at least a rudimentary grasp of a topic, even if it ends up a throwaway line in the story or never used at all, than to wing it.
Of course, I imagine it wouldn’t have been nearly as in–depth as the research required for something like your historical fiction The Fine Point of His Soul. Did you find that you had to do a lot more research for that, or were you already well–versed enough in that period and in Keats to get started? Was the process much different from the research for your other novels?
Julie: For such a short novel, it took me years to write, and the reason can be found in the research, as you surmise. Also, while the story is an ‘alternate history’, I felt the pressure was on to be true to what we know of the real people on whom the characters are based. I did heaps of reading before I dared to even start – and actually visiting Rome, including Keats’ apartment and grave, certainly helped me feel more confident about the ‘feel’ of it all.
I don’t suppose the overall process was very different in essentials, but it was very much longer and rather more detailed. It’s all very well writing an entirely fictional tale about a contemporary couple who live in Wiltshire… It’s something else again to write a tale about people who are household names. I felt I had to earn the right. Though I suppose the main difference in research was reading and re–reading rather more biographies than usual!
Julie: Do you enjoy writing for its own sake, or is it an agonising task? How do you keep yourself motivated while writing a full–length novel?
Cary: A little from column A, a little from column B. I have loved writing since I was little, and it’s exhilarating when the words are flowing. When they’re not, it’s a miserable task and I become convinced that everything that’s come before was a total fluke and that I’ll never write again.
Setting myself small goals can help, like a minimum daily word count. I also have occasional word wars with a friend if we both have the time – we set aside maybe half an hour to an hour and just write, and then come back at the end to compare word counts. Usually winning is enough of an incentive, but recently we’ve been talking about upping the stakes to watching an episode of a show the winner likes that the loser isn’t interested in.
Julie, I’m especially interested in what tips and tricks you have for motivation as you’re an incredibly busy woman but somehow manage to be such a prolific writer as well!
Julie: Ah, well… Thank you! But I don’t know if I can help much. The thing with me is that I’m happiest when I’m writing (leaving aside for now thoughts of being happy with the wonderful Mr B!) so in many ways it’s about self–preservation. I have to write. And when the inspiration comes upon me for a particular story, then it’s a compulsion I have to make time for.
However, I do also need a strategy for those other times when the motivation or energy or time available is marginal. Like you, a minimum effort each day works for me. I try to insist on writing at least something each day (or making notes, or doing useful research), even if it’s only a sentence. The other side of that ‘rule’ is to not beat myself up when I don’t manage to progress my writing at all that day; I forgive myself and try again the next day. With such an approach, I usually manage to write something on five or six days out of every seven.
Often I surprise myself and end up writing not only the required sentence but paragraphs or a whole scene. I have learned that even when I’m feeling absolutely flat and utterly uncreative at the end of a very long day, I can usually manage something quite acceptable. It’s taken me years – decades! – to learn that lesson, but I can write despite low energy levels and too many distractions. Which I suppose boils down to the old adage that ‘A writer writes’. I’ve learned that for myself the hard way. So basically I try to get in there and do it, no matter what.
Julie: Tell me something about your writing process.
Cary: It’s very, very, horribly slow. Unless there’s a scene that’s really vivid in my head, I tend to write chronologically and research and edit as I go, which I’ve been given to understand is a cardinal sin of novel writing. I don’t normally outline; there are just major plot points I know I have to hit, so it works better for me to build my foundations along the way to give me all the necessary details to go on. In any case, going back to rewrite is just as painstaking as editing in the moment so I might as well do it straight away!
Julie: Well, if writing chronologically is a cardinal sin, it’s one I’m also guilty of! I think we each have to work out our own ‘best’ writing process, and go with it.
When I was writing my first novel, I did skip back and forth between various scenes written out of order. However, once I got through to those later scenes ‘the long way’, I found that the characters had evolved through the story and their perspectives had changed. While the same things would happen, the detail of the writing just felt all wrong by then, and I found it very hard to rewrite for something as subtle as a slowly evolving perspective…
Having said that, I do wonder if anyone but me would even notice such niceties! Maybe I am being overly careful about things that don’t really make much of a difference. But I’ve stuck with writing chronologically ever since, and if I have an idea for a future scene I do no more than jot down a very rough draft. The thing is, I always know where a story begins and where it will end up. But the stories or the characters often take me on a different path to get there, and I am one for following that path rather than playing hopscotch!
Julie: Self–publishing your first title (The Other Guy) was a bold move that seems to have paid off very well. What was behind your decision?
Cary: That’s largely due to me being a total control freak. I wanted the final say on everything. Plus, I had access to a great editor, the self–publishing platforms I used (Amazon and Smashwords) were easy to figure out, and I had the means to make the cover myself, so it made sense to keep it all in house, as it were.
Something I’m sure I could have benefitted from in going through a publisher, though, is better marketing. I’m terrible at self–promotion. I can’t even keep up with my own blog and Twitter!
Julie: My weak area is self–promotion, too, so I know what you mean. I definitely like having a publishing team with complementary skills available!
Julie: What do you like to read other than male–male romance?
Cary: I like fantasy–tinged and humorous fiction. Good Omens is probably my favorite book of all time, and Terry Pratchett and PG Wodehouse top my favorite authors list.
Julie: You have great taste, and oh God, I love Good Omens! It’s brilliant.
I do a lot of reading for the sake of research, so I sometimes have to make an effort to read for fun as well. I love literary biographies, and anything relating to the Romantic era. My favourite authors include my sister Bryn Hammond, John Keats (of course!), Jane Austen, Salley Vickers, EM Forster, and Joss Whedon.
Julie: What new project(s) do you have in the works...?
Cary: I’ve been working on another m/m romance, with a slightly more YA bent this time. I have a couple of other ideas floating around in my head, but nothing concrete – at least, not until I get this next one done!
Congratulations, by the way, on your new book! It’s a May–December romance and a little bit different from what you’ve done before – what was the drive behind taking that route?
Julie: I’m so glad to hear about your writing! I’m really looking forward to seeing what you come up with next.
Thank you for asking about The Apothecary’s Garden and the significant age difference between its two main characters. I suppose the notion that older people can feel love and enjoy sex is very important to me. Our society seems intent on putting people on the shelf way before I myself will be ready for it! So it seems a natural fit for me to be writing romance about older characters. Having a younger character fall in love with an older one is a challenging idea for many people, whether in fiction or real life – and of course that makes it a romance ‘against the odds’, which is interesting and fun to write about. I liked the idea that Tom, the younger character, feels such a connection with Hilary, and they enjoy such an easy happy friendship, that the rest seems to flow quite naturally from there – for Tom, at least! Hilary himself struggles with accepting the situation. Although Tom is still quite young, he’s wise enough to know that white hair and wrinkled skin and occasional frailties don’t matter a jot when weighed against a real love. And that sort of attitude is a joy to write! Now, of course, we shall see whether people find it a joy to read as well.
Thank you so much, Cary, for such an interesting conversation!
Cary: Thank you!
And if we haven’t already talked you senseless, you can find us here:
• Julie Bozza on Goodreads
• Julie’s blog
• Cary Attwell on Goodreads
• Cary’s blog
Cary: I’m afraid I don’t have a much more interesting answer for this than: it’s what’s in my head at the moment. When I first got the basic idea for The Other Guy – guy gets dumped at the altar and is left to pick up the pieces – I knew my main character Emory would find love again, but at the time I didn’t know it would be with another man. It was only when I started writing the second chapter that his love interest Nate appeared in my head, and I just went with it.
But generally speaking, I write what I like to read, and since I enjoy reading m/m romances, I suppose it naturally spilled over into my writing.
What about you? You’ve been writing for many years; has your interest always been in m/m romance?
Julie: It has! Well, I made a (very) few desultory attempts to write stories during my teen years, and they tended to involve male–female romances. However, even then there was no denying that while I was fascinated by the relationships between Elizabeth Bennet and Mr Darcy, Aragorn and Arwen, and Romeo and Juliet, I was likewise intrigued by those between Judas and Jesus in Jesus Christ Superstar, Maurice and Alec in Maurice, and Romeo and Mercutio. I was rather innocent, mind you, and it was a very long time ago, but I got the same kind of charge from all these connections. In my somewhat less innocent early twenties, when I finally started trying to write seriously, I very quickly tended towards male–male romance as my genre of choice.
As for why… There have been some very interesting academic studies around the phenomenon of ‘slash’ (m/m) fan fiction, which have presented lots of interesting theories and reasons, most of which I agree with or can see the sense in. But when push comes to shove, it’s all about the writerly passion and the demands of my Muse… It’s a gut–deep urge, and there seems little point in denying it its due!
Julie: Like me, you have written fan fiction in the past. How does that intersect with your professional fiction?
Cary: There’s not much overlap at the moment. I don’t shy away from talking about one arena in the other, but I try not to shove it in people’s faces either as it may not be what they came for in the first place. So while I don’t explicitly talk about my alter ego in fandom or vice versa, it’s probably not difficult to figure out. That said, I do hope that our openly talking about fan fiction might help to diminish some of the stigma around it. Aside from fan fiction being a great expression of artistic appreciation, it’s been incredibly useful to me as a writer in terms of learning how to shape a plot, maintain characterization, etc. in a public setting. In a sense fan fiction has acted as a “soft opening” for me, as a way to hone my skills before letting loose the final product of an original novel. (Also, it’s a hell of a lot of fun and I’ve made so many wonderful friends through it! Hi Julie! :))
Julie: Hear, hear! I wish I had something intelligent to add at this point, but basically I agree with everything you just said. I love fan fiction for its own sake, but it’s also been a demanding and rewarding place in which to learn how to analyse character, stories, settings and style – and write accordingly. I have everything to be grateful for.
Cary: We’ve talked a little bit about “fantasy casting” for our novels before. Is that something that happens organically, like once you have the characters established you realize so–and–so would be great to play him, or do you tend to start off with a clear picture of someone and start building the character from there?
Julie: Each situation has probably been a bit different in this regard – though I suppose I generally start with an idea first, and then seek the characters, and then seek the plot. I certainly do ‘cast’ the film of the book in my head as an early part of the writing process. Sometimes that can be very problematic, though, if I can’t quite find the ideal ‘embodiment’ of my character – or if someone inappropriate is very insistent. (I had all kinds of trouble with Shelley in my Keats novel, because it took me ages to get past envisaging him as Julian Sands, who played him so memorably in the film Gothic!)
I suppose mostly this process happens organically, and then (ideally) the characters evolve into their own selves while I’m writing them anyway. I certainly had two particular actors in mind for Tom and Hilary in The Apothecary’s Garden – and hey, they can still be in the film if they like! – but the characters became rather different people to how I’d first envisaged them.
Julie: How do you do your research? In The Other Guy, your Thailand felt very real, as did the details of Emory’s work as a speech therapist. Where did the details and ‘authentic feel’ of that come from?
Cary: Well, first off, thank you! I’m so glad to hear that the little things came across well. In terms of details, TOG is probably a classic example of writing what you know. I’m currently studying to be a speech therapist, I’ve visited Thailand a couple of times, and Chicago, where the latter half of the story is based, was my home for a few years.
That’s not to say personal recollections are a wholly reasonable substitute for good, old–fashioned research! I managed to do the bulk of it online for TOG – travel blogs, forum posts, interviews, news articles – basically, whatever turned up in my search results I looked at. It got me running down a few rabbit holes, but I’d rather do too much research for at least a rudimentary grasp of a topic, even if it ends up a throwaway line in the story or never used at all, than to wing it.
Of course, I imagine it wouldn’t have been nearly as in–depth as the research required for something like your historical fiction The Fine Point of His Soul. Did you find that you had to do a lot more research for that, or were you already well–versed enough in that period and in Keats to get started? Was the process much different from the research for your other novels?
Julie: For such a short novel, it took me years to write, and the reason can be found in the research, as you surmise. Also, while the story is an ‘alternate history’, I felt the pressure was on to be true to what we know of the real people on whom the characters are based. I did heaps of reading before I dared to even start – and actually visiting Rome, including Keats’ apartment and grave, certainly helped me feel more confident about the ‘feel’ of it all.
I don’t suppose the overall process was very different in essentials, but it was very much longer and rather more detailed. It’s all very well writing an entirely fictional tale about a contemporary couple who live in Wiltshire… It’s something else again to write a tale about people who are household names. I felt I had to earn the right. Though I suppose the main difference in research was reading and re–reading rather more biographies than usual!
Julie: Do you enjoy writing for its own sake, or is it an agonising task? How do you keep yourself motivated while writing a full–length novel?
Cary: A little from column A, a little from column B. I have loved writing since I was little, and it’s exhilarating when the words are flowing. When they’re not, it’s a miserable task and I become convinced that everything that’s come before was a total fluke and that I’ll never write again.
Setting myself small goals can help, like a minimum daily word count. I also have occasional word wars with a friend if we both have the time – we set aside maybe half an hour to an hour and just write, and then come back at the end to compare word counts. Usually winning is enough of an incentive, but recently we’ve been talking about upping the stakes to watching an episode of a show the winner likes that the loser isn’t interested in.
Julie, I’m especially interested in what tips and tricks you have for motivation as you’re an incredibly busy woman but somehow manage to be such a prolific writer as well!
Julie: Ah, well… Thank you! But I don’t know if I can help much. The thing with me is that I’m happiest when I’m writing (leaving aside for now thoughts of being happy with the wonderful Mr B!) so in many ways it’s about self–preservation. I have to write. And when the inspiration comes upon me for a particular story, then it’s a compulsion I have to make time for.
However, I do also need a strategy for those other times when the motivation or energy or time available is marginal. Like you, a minimum effort each day works for me. I try to insist on writing at least something each day (or making notes, or doing useful research), even if it’s only a sentence. The other side of that ‘rule’ is to not beat myself up when I don’t manage to progress my writing at all that day; I forgive myself and try again the next day. With such an approach, I usually manage to write something on five or six days out of every seven.
Often I surprise myself and end up writing not only the required sentence but paragraphs or a whole scene. I have learned that even when I’m feeling absolutely flat and utterly uncreative at the end of a very long day, I can usually manage something quite acceptable. It’s taken me years – decades! – to learn that lesson, but I can write despite low energy levels and too many distractions. Which I suppose boils down to the old adage that ‘A writer writes’. I’ve learned that for myself the hard way. So basically I try to get in there and do it, no matter what.
Julie: Tell me something about your writing process.
Cary: It’s very, very, horribly slow. Unless there’s a scene that’s really vivid in my head, I tend to write chronologically and research and edit as I go, which I’ve been given to understand is a cardinal sin of novel writing. I don’t normally outline; there are just major plot points I know I have to hit, so it works better for me to build my foundations along the way to give me all the necessary details to go on. In any case, going back to rewrite is just as painstaking as editing in the moment so I might as well do it straight away!
Julie: Well, if writing chronologically is a cardinal sin, it’s one I’m also guilty of! I think we each have to work out our own ‘best’ writing process, and go with it.
When I was writing my first novel, I did skip back and forth between various scenes written out of order. However, once I got through to those later scenes ‘the long way’, I found that the characters had evolved through the story and their perspectives had changed. While the same things would happen, the detail of the writing just felt all wrong by then, and I found it very hard to rewrite for something as subtle as a slowly evolving perspective…
Having said that, I do wonder if anyone but me would even notice such niceties! Maybe I am being overly careful about things that don’t really make much of a difference. But I’ve stuck with writing chronologically ever since, and if I have an idea for a future scene I do no more than jot down a very rough draft. The thing is, I always know where a story begins and where it will end up. But the stories or the characters often take me on a different path to get there, and I am one for following that path rather than playing hopscotch!
Julie: Self–publishing your first title (The Other Guy) was a bold move that seems to have paid off very well. What was behind your decision?
Cary: That’s largely due to me being a total control freak. I wanted the final say on everything. Plus, I had access to a great editor, the self–publishing platforms I used (Amazon and Smashwords) were easy to figure out, and I had the means to make the cover myself, so it made sense to keep it all in house, as it were.
Something I’m sure I could have benefitted from in going through a publisher, though, is better marketing. I’m terrible at self–promotion. I can’t even keep up with my own blog and Twitter!
Julie: My weak area is self–promotion, too, so I know what you mean. I definitely like having a publishing team with complementary skills available!
Julie: What do you like to read other than male–male romance?
Cary: I like fantasy–tinged and humorous fiction. Good Omens is probably my favorite book of all time, and Terry Pratchett and PG Wodehouse top my favorite authors list.
Julie: You have great taste, and oh God, I love Good Omens! It’s brilliant.
I do a lot of reading for the sake of research, so I sometimes have to make an effort to read for fun as well. I love literary biographies, and anything relating to the Romantic era. My favourite authors include my sister Bryn Hammond, John Keats (of course!), Jane Austen, Salley Vickers, EM Forster, and Joss Whedon.
Julie: What new project(s) do you have in the works...?
Cary: I’ve been working on another m/m romance, with a slightly more YA bent this time. I have a couple of other ideas floating around in my head, but nothing concrete – at least, not until I get this next one done!
Congratulations, by the way, on your new book! It’s a May–December romance and a little bit different from what you’ve done before – what was the drive behind taking that route?
Julie: I’m so glad to hear about your writing! I’m really looking forward to seeing what you come up with next.
Thank you for asking about The Apothecary’s Garden and the significant age difference between its two main characters. I suppose the notion that older people can feel love and enjoy sex is very important to me. Our society seems intent on putting people on the shelf way before I myself will be ready for it! So it seems a natural fit for me to be writing romance about older characters. Having a younger character fall in love with an older one is a challenging idea for many people, whether in fiction or real life – and of course that makes it a romance ‘against the odds’, which is interesting and fun to write about. I liked the idea that Tom, the younger character, feels such a connection with Hilary, and they enjoy such an easy happy friendship, that the rest seems to flow quite naturally from there – for Tom, at least! Hilary himself struggles with accepting the situation. Although Tom is still quite young, he’s wise enough to know that white hair and wrinkled skin and occasional frailties don’t matter a jot when weighed against a real love. And that sort of attitude is a joy to write! Now, of course, we shall see whether people find it a joy to read as well.
Thank you so much, Cary, for such an interesting conversation!
Cary: Thank you!
And if we haven’t already talked you senseless, you can find us here:
• Julie Bozza on Goodreads
• Julie’s blog
• Cary Attwell on Goodreads
• Cary’s blog
March 22, 2013
Inner child ahoy
Whoops, haven't posted in a good long while. Who knew grad school would be so stressful and time-consuming? Oh, everybody ever? Okay then.
Having zero brain power at the end of the day means most of my bedtime reading is limited to large-print, children's books. Not that I say this in a particularly plaintive way, because children's books are awesome. I've been dipping into my well-loved, aged collection of Enid Blytons recently, which are not only greatly imaginative but also come with the delightful memory of my older sister reading from The Banana Robber to me.
There's just something so comforting about going back to books from childhood, for the same reasons so many of us have a favorite fuzzy old sweater or a tatty stuffed animal that Goodwill probably won't even accept. (Not that I would ever give my Cheer Bear away.) It's a reminder that there's a place where life can be simple for a little while, where fairies exist, happy endings are guaranteed, tears always dry up, and everyone gets what they deserve.
What are some of your favorite things to fall back on when you need time away from the nonsense life throws at you?
Having zero brain power at the end of the day means most of my bedtime reading is limited to large-print, children's books. Not that I say this in a particularly plaintive way, because children's books are awesome. I've been dipping into my well-loved, aged collection of Enid Blytons recently, which are not only greatly imaginative but also come with the delightful memory of my older sister reading from The Banana Robber to me.
There's just something so comforting about going back to books from childhood, for the same reasons so many of us have a favorite fuzzy old sweater or a tatty stuffed animal that Goodwill probably won't even accept. (Not that I would ever give my Cheer Bear away.) It's a reminder that there's a place where life can be simple for a little while, where fairies exist, happy endings are guaranteed, tears always dry up, and everyone gets what they deserve.
What are some of your favorite things to fall back on when you need time away from the nonsense life throws at you?
February 12, 2013
Here comes the science bit
In which I back up the wild claims Emory and Nate make in TOG. With science! And some other stuff.
1. Where the popcorn comes into play is that the properties of its questionable flavoring in some of the microwaveable varieties may actually have a hand in causing dementia. -- Chapter One
Afraid some enthusiastic microwaveable popcorn lobbyist might read my book and accuse me of besmirching popcorn's good name, I did consider taking this part out -- or at least sprinkling the word allegedly throughout the sentence with a liberal hand, but I really like little bits of throwaway trivia. And at the time of writing, I had just learned about it so I was itching to share (and ruin everyone's quintessential film-watching experiences, naturally. You're welcome.)
To be fair, eating butter-flavored popcorn probably isn't going to give you dementia. The study referenced regards food industry workers' chronic exposure to the flavoring ingredient, diacetyl, during the manufacturing process. Researchers found that the ingredient increased the risk of toxic damage to brain cells similar to the way proteins clump together in Alzheimer's disease. Which is still not to say that diacetyl definitely does link to dementia, but that it's a possibility.
Source: Science Daily
2. "Maybe," I said smoothly. "But Aristotle once said that people with curly hair can't be trusted, so..." -- Chapter Two
I first heard about this on QI, a wonderfully funny and informative British comedy panel quiz show, on their Fingers and Fumbs episode (S6E7). Apparently Aristotle was super into physiognomy, which reads a person's character or personality from facial features. He wrote a whole book on it, The Secrets of Nature Relating to Physiognomy, in which pretty much every facial feature signifies something horrible. Of the curly-haired: "He is by nature proud and bold, dull of apprehension, soon angry, and a lover of venery, and given to lying, malicious and ready to do any mischief."
So my characterization of Emory? Nailed it.
Source: Project Gutenberg
3. "Hi, Mithter J," said Abby, smiling the untroubled smile of five-year-olds everywhere. -- Chapter Five
This one isn't really a wild claim by either Emory or Nate; I just wanted to talk about it. Abby has a frontal lisp here, doing a 'th' for an 's'. Though this has no relevant impact on the storyline at all, in my mind she actually has a lateral lisp. However, dialogue with a lateral lisp is very difficult to spell. I'll let this lovely little girl from Horrible Histories demonstrate what that sounds like:
Incidentally, Horrible Histories is a brilliant, award-winning historical sketch show for children, and everyone should watch it.
The difference between frontal and lateral lisps, other than, obviously, tongue placement, is that the former is a typical developmental error that could potentially resolve on its own with maturity, while the latter is not a typical developmental error and almost always requires speech therapy, regardless of age.
Source: My school learnin's. (If you really want, I'm sure I can scare up some actual references for you.)
4. "No one can resist the face of a Lhasa Apso; it's been scientifically proven." -- Nate, Chapter Seven
Okay, this one Nate pulled right out of his shapely bum. But I mean, come on. Have you seen a Lhasa Apso? They're adorable.
1. Where the popcorn comes into play is that the properties of its questionable flavoring in some of the microwaveable varieties may actually have a hand in causing dementia. -- Chapter One
Afraid some enthusiastic microwaveable popcorn lobbyist might read my book and accuse me of besmirching popcorn's good name, I did consider taking this part out -- or at least sprinkling the word allegedly throughout the sentence with a liberal hand, but I really like little bits of throwaway trivia. And at the time of writing, I had just learned about it so I was itching to share (and ruin everyone's quintessential film-watching experiences, naturally. You're welcome.)
To be fair, eating butter-flavored popcorn probably isn't going to give you dementia. The study referenced regards food industry workers' chronic exposure to the flavoring ingredient, diacetyl, during the manufacturing process. Researchers found that the ingredient increased the risk of toxic damage to brain cells similar to the way proteins clump together in Alzheimer's disease. Which is still not to say that diacetyl definitely does link to dementia, but that it's a possibility.
Source: Science Daily
2. "Maybe," I said smoothly. "But Aristotle once said that people with curly hair can't be trusted, so..." -- Chapter Two
I first heard about this on QI, a wonderfully funny and informative British comedy panel quiz show, on their Fingers and Fumbs episode (S6E7). Apparently Aristotle was super into physiognomy, which reads a person's character or personality from facial features. He wrote a whole book on it, The Secrets of Nature Relating to Physiognomy, in which pretty much every facial feature signifies something horrible. Of the curly-haired: "He is by nature proud and bold, dull of apprehension, soon angry, and a lover of venery, and given to lying, malicious and ready to do any mischief."
So my characterization of Emory? Nailed it.
Source: Project Gutenberg
3. "Hi, Mithter J," said Abby, smiling the untroubled smile of five-year-olds everywhere. -- Chapter Five
This one isn't really a wild claim by either Emory or Nate; I just wanted to talk about it. Abby has a frontal lisp here, doing a 'th' for an 's'. Though this has no relevant impact on the storyline at all, in my mind she actually has a lateral lisp. However, dialogue with a lateral lisp is very difficult to spell. I'll let this lovely little girl from Horrible Histories demonstrate what that sounds like:
Incidentally, Horrible Histories is a brilliant, award-winning historical sketch show for children, and everyone should watch it.
The difference between frontal and lateral lisps, other than, obviously, tongue placement, is that the former is a typical developmental error that could potentially resolve on its own with maturity, while the latter is not a typical developmental error and almost always requires speech therapy, regardless of age.
Source: My school learnin's. (If you really want, I'm sure I can scare up some actual references for you.)
4. "No one can resist the face of a Lhasa Apso; it's been scientifically proven." -- Nate, Chapter Seven
Okay, this one Nate pulled right out of his shapely bum. But I mean, come on. Have you seen a Lhasa Apso? They're adorable.
January 6, 2013
Aliens made them do it
I hate writing porn.
Porn and kissing scenes. They fill me with dread. Don't get me wrong -- porn is great; who doesn't like a nice little rough-and-tumble scene every now and then? I'm perpetually in awe of writers who can do it easily and do it well because I am very, very much not in those ranks. As it is, I'm already an excruciatingly slow writer; I agonize over every sentence and reread and edit as I go (I hear this is one of the mortal sins in novel writing; oops) and when it gets to body parts touching other body parts, it's about ten times worse. I find it one of the most difficult things to write, in the history of ever.
What if it comes out like an instruction manual for a shelf? Insert screw A into slot B. Gross.
But Cary, you say, you didn't even write porn in The Other Guy. What the crap are you whining about? Yes, true, I weaseled out of that one; I didn't think the story absolutely needed it. (Also, does it weird anyone else out to read sexytimes in the first person?)
I'm writing porn now, though, in my next story. After all the above whinging, I'm writing it, and the reason for that is simple: because my characters want to do it. When they come knocking on my brain and tell me stuff like that, I have to give in. Not without some kicking and screaming on my end, but when it comes right down to it, the characters always win. And they should; it's their story, after all.
A couple years ago, my BFF M and I co-wrote a story. It was to be a real epic. You know: Romance! Betrayal! Swordfights! Sex! (I made her write all the sex scenes.) We planned it meticulously over hours of phone calls and capslock emails, chapter to chapter, scene by scene, outlines bleeding from our eyes. As we got going, though, one of the peripheral characters started poking his head in and messing things up a bit. He was barely even a peripheral character to begin with; we knew he existed as part of the landscape and we weren't going to give him any lines.
"Go away," we said. "Go and guard that door or something. We have important things to do."
So he went and stood guard. Then he started talking to the girl on the other side of the door. And worse, she started talking back.
"Stop it, this isn't part of the plan," we said, though we eyed them with great curiosity. How interesting.
By the end of the story, he was the second lead in a romance never intended to happen. It didn't capsize our original plot, the bones of it were still very much there. Would it still have been a decent story if we didn't let him elbow his way in? Sure. M is a fab storyteller and the process of writing with her was in itself a joy. Would we still be as proud of it if we'd stuck, point by point, to our outline? Doubt it.
Characters fight back. Try to shove them in a direction they don't want to go, and it ruins everyone's day. I learned it writing that story with my BFF, and I'm learning it still. Sometimes I try to push through with my authorial power. "La la la not listening," I say, and then I end up having to axe entire scenes because I didn't listen. The other day, one of them yelled at me, "But it doesn't make any fiscal sense!" Yes, thank you, nerd. Scene scrapped.
Speaking of wielding authorial power, I'm currently wading around in that wasteland known as Writer's Block (0 out of 5 stars; not recommended) because I had an idea to make my characters go and have a nice hometown visit with their family. It would be all kinds of sweet and homey. Turns out, they don't want to. Why, I don't know; I still think it's a fantastic idea, so we're stalemating. I'm willing to wait this one out. Sometimes you just have to put your foot down.
I think we all know who's going to win in the end. (Hint: it's not me. Ugh.)
Porn and kissing scenes. They fill me with dread. Don't get me wrong -- porn is great; who doesn't like a nice little rough-and-tumble scene every now and then? I'm perpetually in awe of writers who can do it easily and do it well because I am very, very much not in those ranks. As it is, I'm already an excruciatingly slow writer; I agonize over every sentence and reread and edit as I go (I hear this is one of the mortal sins in novel writing; oops) and when it gets to body parts touching other body parts, it's about ten times worse. I find it one of the most difficult things to write, in the history of ever.
What if it comes out like an instruction manual for a shelf? Insert screw A into slot B. Gross.
But Cary, you say, you didn't even write porn in The Other Guy. What the crap are you whining about? Yes, true, I weaseled out of that one; I didn't think the story absolutely needed it. (Also, does it weird anyone else out to read sexytimes in the first person?)
I'm writing porn now, though, in my next story. After all the above whinging, I'm writing it, and the reason for that is simple: because my characters want to do it. When they come knocking on my brain and tell me stuff like that, I have to give in. Not without some kicking and screaming on my end, but when it comes right down to it, the characters always win. And they should; it's their story, after all.
A couple years ago, my BFF M and I co-wrote a story. It was to be a real epic. You know: Romance! Betrayal! Swordfights! Sex! (I made her write all the sex scenes.) We planned it meticulously over hours of phone calls and capslock emails, chapter to chapter, scene by scene, outlines bleeding from our eyes. As we got going, though, one of the peripheral characters started poking his head in and messing things up a bit. He was barely even a peripheral character to begin with; we knew he existed as part of the landscape and we weren't going to give him any lines.
"Go away," we said. "Go and guard that door or something. We have important things to do."
So he went and stood guard. Then he started talking to the girl on the other side of the door. And worse, she started talking back.
"Stop it, this isn't part of the plan," we said, though we eyed them with great curiosity. How interesting.
By the end of the story, he was the second lead in a romance never intended to happen. It didn't capsize our original plot, the bones of it were still very much there. Would it still have been a decent story if we didn't let him elbow his way in? Sure. M is a fab storyteller and the process of writing with her was in itself a joy. Would we still be as proud of it if we'd stuck, point by point, to our outline? Doubt it.
Characters fight back. Try to shove them in a direction they don't want to go, and it ruins everyone's day. I learned it writing that story with my BFF, and I'm learning it still. Sometimes I try to push through with my authorial power. "La la la not listening," I say, and then I end up having to axe entire scenes because I didn't listen. The other day, one of them yelled at me, "But it doesn't make any fiscal sense!" Yes, thank you, nerd. Scene scrapped.
Speaking of wielding authorial power, I'm currently wading around in that wasteland known as Writer's Block (0 out of 5 stars; not recommended) because I had an idea to make my characters go and have a nice hometown visit with their family. It would be all kinds of sweet and homey. Turns out, they don't want to. Why, I don't know; I still think it's a fantastic idea, so we're stalemating. I'm willing to wait this one out. Sometimes you just have to put your foot down.
I think we all know who's going to win in the end. (Hint: it's not me. Ugh.)
December 12, 2012
I can haz superhuman time management skillz?
As it turns out, no. No, I can't.
Publishing my first novel and starting my second at the same time as my first year of graduate school? Only my best idea ever! (she said, laughing hysterically, and had to be confined to two weeks of bedrest.) It's like juggling cinder blocks. I've already managed to drop the Cinder Block of Other Life Things, like being clean. If this is the last you hear from me, it's safe to assume the dust bunnies have staged a victorious, asthma-based revolution.
Obviously the book isn't something I have to do, but I want to do it because it makes me happy and because I might otherwise go crazy. So I guess in that sense I do have to do it! And the writers of you out there know how thrilling and satisfying it is, in the midst of the whirlwind of everything else your life entails, to just sit down and get the words out sometimes. (Especially when all your other words have to center around brain and body parts and the great many things that can go wrong inside a human person. SO MANY THINGS, YOU GUYS.)
Thankfully, once I get through this week -- barring death by final exam (entirely possible) or any of the household mess becoming sentient (less likely, but let's not rule it out) -- I'll get an all-access pass to the glorious Winter Break of Doing Nothing 2012. Hurrah! Well, not entirely nothing. I have a lovely, teetering pile of TBRs on my nightstand to amuse myself with, and I am so excited to be able to read for fun again. Check it:
Some of those are for research for the next book; some others are because I'm a nostalgic dork. Invisible prizes for guessing which!
Oh, and also, of course, some of the break will be dedicated to epic swordfights with the dust bunnies. As you do.
Publishing my first novel and starting my second at the same time as my first year of graduate school? Only my best idea ever! (she said, laughing hysterically, and had to be confined to two weeks of bedrest.) It's like juggling cinder blocks. I've already managed to drop the Cinder Block of Other Life Things, like being clean. If this is the last you hear from me, it's safe to assume the dust bunnies have staged a victorious, asthma-based revolution.
Obviously the book isn't something I have to do, but I want to do it because it makes me happy and because I might otherwise go crazy. So I guess in that sense I do have to do it! And the writers of you out there know how thrilling and satisfying it is, in the midst of the whirlwind of everything else your life entails, to just sit down and get the words out sometimes. (Especially when all your other words have to center around brain and body parts and the great many things that can go wrong inside a human person. SO MANY THINGS, YOU GUYS.)
Thankfully, once I get through this week -- barring death by final exam (entirely possible) or any of the household mess becoming sentient (less likely, but let's not rule it out) -- I'll get an all-access pass to the glorious Winter Break of Doing Nothing 2012. Hurrah! Well, not entirely nothing. I have a lovely, teetering pile of TBRs on my nightstand to amuse myself with, and I am so excited to be able to read for fun again. Check it:
Some of those are for research for the next book; some others are because I'm a nostalgic dork. Invisible prizes for guessing which!
Oh, and also, of course, some of the break will be dedicated to epic swordfights with the dust bunnies. As you do.
November 15, 2012
TOG: Now in ultra-flammable form!
Ever wished you could lovingly cradle a copy of The Other Guy in your arms, or drop it in the bath, or accidentally get marinara sauce on it because your lunch leaked inside your backpack? Well, now you can!
Introducing: The Other Guy, in paperback!
I'll just wait for the trumpets and fanfare to die down, though should you feel like kicking off a celebration in the streets later on, I certainly won't put a stop to it.
This essentially came about because my mother got it in her head that it would be hilarious if she could pass an autographed paperback copy to my auntie who doesn't know I wrote this thing or that Cary Attwell is a person she is related to*, and make her read it and then drop some kind of gigantic surprise announcement that it was actually me all along. (I think this plan was a lot more fun in my mother's head.)
So, enjoy the papery goodness!
*Cary Attwell is my pen name, as you may have guessed. I stole it off one of my old Barbie dolls. She lives in a box somewhere in storage; we'll just make sure she never hears of this. Be cool, everyone.
Introducing: The Other Guy, in paperback!
I'll just wait for the trumpets and fanfare to die down, though should you feel like kicking off a celebration in the streets later on, I certainly won't put a stop to it.
This essentially came about because my mother got it in her head that it would be hilarious if she could pass an autographed paperback copy to my auntie who doesn't know I wrote this thing or that Cary Attwell is a person she is related to*, and make her read it and then drop some kind of gigantic surprise announcement that it was actually me all along. (I think this plan was a lot more fun in my mother's head.)
So, enjoy the papery goodness!
*Cary Attwell is my pen name, as you may have guessed. I stole it off one of my old Barbie dolls. She lives in a box somewhere in storage; we'll just make sure she never hears of this. Be cool, everyone.
November 4, 2012
A word (by which I mean several words) on fanfiction
It is one of my great disappointments in life that I will never be able to even come close to approximating the artistry Michael Chabon effortlessly executes in all of his books. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay is one of my favorites (which I once lent out to someone in quivering glee at being able to share his words but then never got back, to my eternal dismay); it was the first book I'd ever read of his and I was awestruck by the way he crafts words so beautifully together.
As he's one of my literary heroes, I approached his essay about fanfiction in Reading and Writing Along the Borderlands with trepidation, half expecting the same censure you hear from the plethora of high-profile authors out there who very publicly rail against fanfiction as a kind of theft, as a lazy practice, as being inherently subpar.
But here's what Chabon had to say about it: "Through parody and pastiche, allusion and homage, retelling and reimagining the stories that were told before us and that we have come of age loving, we proceed, seeking out the blank places in the map that our favorite writers, in their greatness and negligence, have left for us, hoping to pass on to our own readers some of the pleasure that we ourselves have taken in the stuff we love. All novels are sequels; influence is bliss."
If I actually used Facebook, I'd break the Like button on that quote.
The rest of this post will not be able to say it any better than he did but, gosh darn it, I'm going to give it the old college try anyway.
Full disclosure, if you haven't already guessed: I read and write and love fanfiction.
No matter the source material, there is always something more to mine from that universe. Life doesn't end when a few select problems are resolved, conversations don't fade to black and any number of things can and do happen in the background outside of the protagonists' knowing and sphere of influence. Unsaid things happen in and out of the story we're told, and sometimes those incidents deserve (or demand!) their own story too. I don't think I'm alone in saying that there have been countless times in my life when I've gone, "Nooo!" when I realize it's the end of the book and there's to be no more (and sometimes go straight back to the beginning so I won't have to put the story away).
In that sense, I see fanfiction as the ultimate form of flattery. It means my imagination has been sparked in ways it's never been before your book/show/movie came along; it means I love your universe, story and characters so much that I can't bear to let them go; it means I want to go on a dozen more adventures with them and revel in the light of their brilliance, shake them when they're being stupid, hurt when they hurt and hold them close to my heart.
Though less so than in years past, fanfiction still carries quite a heavy stigma, full of Mary Sues and self-inserts and ungrammatical nonsense enough to make your head explode. True, there is a lot of dreck out there, just like there is a lot of dreck in traditionally published works. But I promise, cross my heart and hope to die, that there are fanfic writers across the world who are downright outstanding, who ought to have publishers crowding outside their door with a battering ram to get them signed to a multi-book deal, who don't need an established universe to tell their stories, but use those universes out of reverence and love.
It's not a lack of respect from which fanfiction stems, nor delusion or lackluster enterprise. Fanfiction, as I have encountered it throughout the years, is an expression of appreciation -- for words, for worlds, for characters, for the creators themselves who have, knowingly or not, gifted an endless sandbox to their fans to build something new from whatever wonderful things have been afforded them.
As he's one of my literary heroes, I approached his essay about fanfiction in Reading and Writing Along the Borderlands with trepidation, half expecting the same censure you hear from the plethora of high-profile authors out there who very publicly rail against fanfiction as a kind of theft, as a lazy practice, as being inherently subpar.
But here's what Chabon had to say about it: "Through parody and pastiche, allusion and homage, retelling and reimagining the stories that were told before us and that we have come of age loving, we proceed, seeking out the blank places in the map that our favorite writers, in their greatness and negligence, have left for us, hoping to pass on to our own readers some of the pleasure that we ourselves have taken in the stuff we love. All novels are sequels; influence is bliss."
If I actually used Facebook, I'd break the Like button on that quote.
The rest of this post will not be able to say it any better than he did but, gosh darn it, I'm going to give it the old college try anyway.
Full disclosure, if you haven't already guessed: I read and write and love fanfiction.
No matter the source material, there is always something more to mine from that universe. Life doesn't end when a few select problems are resolved, conversations don't fade to black and any number of things can and do happen in the background outside of the protagonists' knowing and sphere of influence. Unsaid things happen in and out of the story we're told, and sometimes those incidents deserve (or demand!) their own story too. I don't think I'm alone in saying that there have been countless times in my life when I've gone, "Nooo!" when I realize it's the end of the book and there's to be no more (and sometimes go straight back to the beginning so I won't have to put the story away).
In that sense, I see fanfiction as the ultimate form of flattery. It means my imagination has been sparked in ways it's never been before your book/show/movie came along; it means I love your universe, story and characters so much that I can't bear to let them go; it means I want to go on a dozen more adventures with them and revel in the light of their brilliance, shake them when they're being stupid, hurt when they hurt and hold them close to my heart.
Though less so than in years past, fanfiction still carries quite a heavy stigma, full of Mary Sues and self-inserts and ungrammatical nonsense enough to make your head explode. True, there is a lot of dreck out there, just like there is a lot of dreck in traditionally published works. But I promise, cross my heart and hope to die, that there are fanfic writers across the world who are downright outstanding, who ought to have publishers crowding outside their door with a battering ram to get them signed to a multi-book deal, who don't need an established universe to tell their stories, but use those universes out of reverence and love.
It's not a lack of respect from which fanfiction stems, nor delusion or lackluster enterprise. Fanfiction, as I have encountered it throughout the years, is an expression of appreciation -- for words, for worlds, for characters, for the creators themselves who have, knowingly or not, gifted an endless sandbox to their fans to build something new from whatever wonderful things have been afforded them.
