Spellmonger Shadowplay: Introducing Emily Burch Harris

 

Shadowplay is a special book for me for a number of reasons. Firstly, it’s the first time I’ve worked closely with another author – and my editor, at that – on a Spellmonger novel. That has been a wildly interesting and instructive process, as well as quite rewarding. Writing is an exercise of the ego, and sharing that position with someone else is always a delicate process.

For those who aren’t aware, Shadowplay is the start of my second YA or Cadet trilogy. It features the back story of one of the more popular characters from the Spellmonger universe, Gatina, Kitten of Night, professional thief and shadowmage, a scion of House Furitis. Like the Hawkmaiden trilogy before it, we get to know this important secondary characters through their own perspectives.

Unlike the Hawkmaiden trilogy, I didn’t compose this one by myself. I invited Emily Burch Harris, my longtime editor, to collaborate. That was a novelty for both of us, and a worthy experiment. Emily is the woman who has had the unenviable task of keeping my work from falling off a cliff; for every editing error you might see, know that Emily kept a score of them from erupting across the vast pages of the Spellmonger Series. She asks me questions about character, plot, setting and timing that have dramatically changed how I wrote. Emily was a natural for collaboration.

Shadowplay is the result: a full length novel about Gatina’s early years in Falas, the time that introduced her to the truth of her family and saw her initiation into their unique secret legacy unfold. The backdrop is in the early days of the Goblin War, just after the Duke and Duchess of Alshar are assassinated in the Wilderlands. The hereditary rival of the Duke, Count Vichetral of Rhemes, takes the opportunity to seize power with the help of a deadly criminal organization. The late Duke’s loyalists are being eliminated. It’s a dangerous time, a time for secrets.

Emily brought energy and perspective to the character, as we composed, and introduced some distinctive elements to both the world-building and the plotting of the series. And she has a sneaky mind. It was a very entertaining composition.

I won’t spoil it more than that, but I did want to give Emily the opportunity to introduce herself, and then answer some of my questions. In turn, I’m going to answer three of her questions about the process and the product of our labor.

Introducing Emily Burch Harris

Hi, I’m Emily. I have been telling stories for as long as I have been able to speak. I grew up reading everything I could get my hands on – mystery, fantasy, YA, literary, urban, paranormal, historical, cereal boxes, cookbooks, newspapers … you get the picture. Books took me out of my “now” and magically transported me to “there.” And sometimes “there” was much better than reality.

My interest in writing began in junior high language arts class with Mary Stewart’s “The Crystal Cave.” I was hooked on Merlin, Arthur, and the history and legends. By college and grad school, I would read the fun books as a reward for reading the textbooks. I remember asking my mom to ration my Anne Rice books so that I wouldn’t mess up schoolwork.

This love of storytelling led me to journalism, where my nosiness and ability to turn a phrase were assets. But something was always missing. Make believe. I wanted to write fiction. The world was scary enough. I wanted monsters that I could control. So, I took classes and workshops. I read more. And I procrastinated. Until one day, I realized that it was time for me to jump in and start building worlds. That realization was because Terry reminded me that words on a screen are just that: on a screen. If it’s not out there, in the world, nobody can read it.

Q&A with Terry & EmilyEmily’s questions for Terry

Q: How do you build a writing practice while managing three children? I only have one …?

You hit the nail on the head with your question: Practice. For me, writing started out as an escape, but I knew if I wanted it to be more than a hobby I had to dedicate some serious time and energy to it. You’re right, that’s hard with three small children (and it hasn’t gotten much easier now that they’re more or less grown). You have to want it badly enough to make the time to do it. And learn your own creative process well enough to know what you can and you can’t deal with. It’s not easy, but it’s a discipline – a practice – that has to be learned.

Q. What do you wish you had known about this collaboration process ahead of time?

That’s actually hard to answer. I tried to be outcome dependent when we started this book, because having high expectations leads to disappointment and having low expectations undermines your determination, so I tried to approach it as an experiment that could go either way. I think we navigated the potential issues quite well, actually, and I’m pleased with the result. I guess the hardest part was discussing plotting and character with you, because you have (of course) a quite different body of “favorites” than I do, and it was sometimes difficult to find a common area that we both understood certain things.

Q. Where do you find inspiration and ideas? Do the muses come to you or did you beat them into submission?

A little of both, actually. Inspiration for the big plot points often comes when I examine a common fantasy trope and twist it. But it’s the little flashes of inspiration that are just as important, because those are the things that really make your books interesting. Things usually go pretty smoothly, if you know what you’re going to write. And then you come to a point where you realize you’re getting boring or you get stuck on something, and you need a little of Briga’s Fire to help you over the hump.

There are means of beating your muse, if you need to. One of my favorites is to jerk myself entirely out of what I’m writing and indulge in something that COULDN’T POSSIBLY HELP YOU AT ALL, because it’s completely unrelated to what you’re doing in every possible way. You witnessed me do that yourself, at the beach, when I found and purchased a copy of Home Life in Holland, by D.S. Meldrum (1911) at a consignment shop and began to read it.

Now, an early 20th century Englishman’s perceptions of the Dutch culture at the brink of industrialization might seem poor soil in which to grow ideas; however, just seeing the author’s word usage and personal idiosyncrasies gave me hundreds of little ideas about how certain characters would talk, and their perspectives on things like class, gender, and family life. Seeing how they viewed servants and nobility. Seeing how their own opinions, in retrospective analysis, reveal things about them as a narrator. I’ve already lifted some things from it that I’ll use in future works, as well as ideas that will combine with other ideas in the dark and produce the magic. Or something like that.

Terry’s Questions for Emily

Q. I know you don’t come from a background of Epic Fantasy, although you’re familiar with the genre. What aspects of writing in the feudalistic world did you find most challenging?

The biggest challenge was my memory recall of medieval economies and socioeconomic systems. I had to revisit my history high school lessons. I also had to consider the proper turn of phrase and word choice, as modern words did not exist in those days – even in epic fantasy.

Q. What was the most important lesson you picked up from the collaboration, professionally speaking?

Man, that’s a tough question. I learned a lot. I’m coming to Epic Fantasy from writing journalism-style content. Of course, I had a bit of backstory, having worked as Terry’s editor for years, but this is totally different. The most important lesson was about pacing. In news, we get to the facts, fast. In fiction, you don’t do that.

Q. What element of Gatina’s character do you find the most intriguing?

As soon as I first met Gatina, I was intrigued. She’s a feminist, she’s smart, and she has a killer sense of humor (and comic timing). But developing her as a deeper character has been incredibly rewarding. I love her sense of social and civic justice – her strong sense of right or wrong – and given her profession, I find that to be ripe with storylines and possibilities.