No, but if you hum a few bars...
Welcome to Ask the Author--War for the Oaks edition!
War for the Oaks was my first novel, originally published by Ace in 1987, re-released by Tor Books in 2001 with a cool photo cover, and a few years after that in their Tor Teen line with an awesome Mike Dringenberg cover. There's also a screenplay (http://www.amazon.com/War-Oaks-Screen...), if you get a kick out stuff like that.
Feel free to ask questions in the comments here, and I'll answer them if I can, either in the comments or in a new post.
Help yourself to whatever's in the virtual refrigerator, and just generally make yourself at home. Just remember to tell somebody when we're running low on coffee, beer, or toilet paper, okay?
WARNING: The Librarian General has determined that this thread may contain spoilers. Well, probably, eventually, anyway. You might not want to read the comments until you've read War for the Oaks, or unless you're pretty sure you aren't going to. Or you don't mind spoilers. (Thanks, Leslie, for suggesting this heads-up!)
War for the Oaks was my first novel, originally published by Ace in 1987, re-released by Tor Books in 2001 with a cool photo cover, and a few years after that in their Tor Teen line with an awesome Mike Dringenberg cover. There's also a screenplay (http://www.amazon.com/War-Oaks-Screen...), if you get a kick out stuff like that.
Feel free to ask questions in the comments here, and I'll answer them if I can, either in the comments or in a new post.
Help yourself to whatever's in the virtual refrigerator, and just generally make yourself at home. Just remember to tell somebody when we're running low on coffee, beer, or toilet paper, okay?
WARNING: The Librarian General has determined that this thread may contain spoilers. Well, probably, eventually, anyway. You might not want to read the comments until you've read War for the Oaks, or unless you're pretty sure you aren't going to. Or you don't mind spoilers. (Thanks, Leslie, for suggesting this heads-up!)
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Hi Emma,I read WFTO back when it first came out and at the time, I remember being struck with it's originality. I'd never read a fantasy novel set in modern times. Who knew back then how popular the urban fantasy genre would ultimately become?
Since it's been such a long time since I last read the book, I need to wait to get a bit further along before I ask any questions or make any comments. I'm guessing this blog will eventually contain spoilers? If so, maybe you should post a warning.
Kiri wrote: "Did you have specific people as models for some (or any, or all?) of your characters?..."Sometimes I have people in mind when I imagine characters, but it's pretty rare. And even when I do, the characters evolve as I go until they become more themselves and less whoever they're modeled on. I started off thinking the Phouka looked like Prince, but by halfway through the writing process, he was completely the Phouka.
Though Harold Perrineau could so play him in a movie version...
Leslie wrote: "...I'd never read a fantasy novel set in modern times. Who knew back then how popular the urban fantasy genre would ultimately become? ..."When I wrote WftO, I knew the music and clothes would become dated. I hadn't realized the subgenre would! It's a very different experience, reading WftO for the first time in 2009, than it would have been reading it in 1987 when it was published. Back then contemporary fantasy was War for the Oaks and Charles deLint's Moonheart, pretty much, in genre fantasy.
Though fantasy in a contemporary setting has always been popular in YA fiction. And horror--which was the BIG genre in 1987--relies on mixing the supernatural with the familiar/contemporary in order to provide maximum freaking-outing. I think Charles and I were influenced by both those genres when we wrote. I know I wanted to use the interpenetration of the magical and the mundane to illuminate the everyday world, to suggest that it's magical in its own way.
And you're so right about a spoiler warning. I'll edit the post now. Thanks!
I hope you do an "Ask the Author" on Bone Dance. That would be sweet.
Okay--Is it pronounced poo-ka or foo-ka? That's always confounded me.
Leslie wrote: "Okay--Is it pronounced poo-ka or foo-ka? That's always confounded me."Pooka! (There are spellings even more alarming than "phouka." Just so's you know. *g*)
Sorry, I can't look at the "ph" and not pronounce it as an "f". I read the first 194 pages of the 2001 edition so far today. I read when I shouldn't have been reading. I'd put it down and pick it right back up. I'm so very bad, but this book is so very good. I do have to say that all the references to Prince just crack me up. I never quite got the Prince mystique. I haven't noticed anything else seeming dated. The clothes have been suitably vague so far, nobody is driving a DeLorean, and I haven't seen any references to perms or big hair.
I'm really liking this book. It makes me feel young.
I love War for the Oaks! Its an amazing mix of some of the best parts of the 80's and some truly ancient mythology. There were some scenes where I could almost hear the music!
So, the classic fan question: will there be an sequels?
I finished it in two days. My review will be posted later.
I read this when it first came out (I would have been 11 or so at the time) and it was mind-blowing how different it was from any other fantasy I'd ever read. Even now that this is a huge subgenre, WFTO is one of my all-time favorite books, as is Bone Dance. So thanks for writing them!
I just finished it and loved it! I can't believe I've never even heard of it. I'm a huge fan of Charles de Lint and it seems like your book should have popped up on my radar earlier than this.I don't really have anything useful to add or ask. But I will repeat what someone else said in a different group: I wish the book had a soundtrack! I don't think I knew any of the songs. But I was growing up in the 80s and we only really got one radio station and it played country and Paul Harvey's "The Rest of the Story." My husband frequently teases me about my profound lack of knowledge about almost everything 80s.
Thanks for setting this up, Emma! And thanks for the wonderful book!
I'm about halfway through, and so far, it's as good as I remember. The 80's is the era of my young adulthood(aaaak, I'm dating myself!!). Eddi and Carla could have been my contemporaries. I was heavily into punk rock and New Wave at the time, but I also liked Prince, and to me, the phouka IS Prince! With each chapter title, I find that particular song swirling through my head as I read.
I'm reading the chapter where Eddi and the band play the Art Institute. Emma, the song Eddi sings--have you actually performed this song in public?
I spent some years in a band within the decade after I first read the book, and I love all the band stuff even more than the faerie stuff. The combination of the two elements is what really makes the book rock, but the band stuff really captures the experience (the magic of performing in front of an audience, the magic of playing without an audience, the sexyness of electric guitars) the only thing that didn't work for me was drumsticks as weapons. Sure, you could poke someone's eye out, but...?
Emma - many of the Faerie characters and elements in the book are familiar but I'd be curious to know if you used a particular cultural structure or set of tales. I saw a fair amount of British and Irish folklore and mythology – was that your primary source? What other elements did you combine? What inspired the story in the first place?
One of the great things about GoodReads is finding authors/books you didn't know about. I'm going to rush out and get a copy of this.
So excited to discover you! Love the book, looking forward to reading the rest. Thank you so much for your delicious writing and great characters.
Whenever I'm asked (and as a librarian, I'm asked frequently) what my favorite book is, my stock answer is War For The Oaks. I adore it. Once even took a WftO tour of the Twin Cities, even buying myself a vest at Ragstock that I still wear. :-)
Ahh! This is one of my favourite books and has been since my mother and I first read when I was weee. Growing up in England, it felt very natural and comprehensible and then moving to the States I kinda feel like it helped the transition.Plus I quote the bit where Eddi talks about how sometimes you dress to look pretty and sometimes it's armor and sometimes you dress to make yourself happy because everything else is going to be awful and at least you'll have that.
I have the Cats Laughing cd too so I can listen to "For It All" repeatedly. Every day. (And I bugged Patrick for some of the jam stuff he was on)
So I guess here's my question for now: I have always been disappointed in The Safety Dance, as performed by MWOH because I've always had an idea of how Eddi and the Fey (and all the Fey) did it. Did you guys ever cover it? Is this something I could discover/bother Patrick for?
I love your book more than I have words for.
I just stumbled across War for the Oaks on my TBR shelf, with a note from a friend tucked inside that read: I think you might like this. I'm only a little ways in, and all I can think is, "How on earth did I not read this book before?!"
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A blog where Fantasy Book Club readers--and others!--can ask questions about War for the Oaks. At least, that's what we're up to until the end of October. After that, all bets are off.
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Did you have specific people as models for some (or any, or all?) of your characters? Your writing is always quite visual.