Kicking ass and dating Dark Lords: Kylie Chan guest blogs

Kylie Chan answered a few questions for us – which give fans an insight into how she came up with the Dark Heavens trilogy (White Tiger, Red Phoenix, Blue Dragon). If you haven’t yet read the series, click on the image of White Tiger to the left to browse inside the pages of the book!

Where did you get the idea for writing the Dark Heavens trilogy?

I’d lived for twenty years with my Chinese husband, ten in Australia and then another ten in Hong Kong. The culture had completely soaked into me – I would do and say things terribly Chinese (aiyaa!) without even thinking. We originally went to Hong Kong just for a year, that stretched into a three-year contract, and then eventually he took a permanent, and extremely well-paying, position there.

After ten years of Hong Kong, he was making a lot of noise about never returning to Australia. He enjoyed the lifestyle, this was his home. He went golfing across the border in China every Friday afternoon directly after work, and came home Sunday afternoon. I was thoroughly sick of Hong Kong – the crowds, the noise, the pollution, and mostly the fact that when we went to the Mall on a Sunday there was such a crush of people that it was impossible to actually buy anything – a fun family day out turned into a stampede and a massive headache. I’d had enough.

I came back to Australia by myself, with the two kids. To breathe fresh air, and see the blue sky again! Complete bliss. My husband still supported us, and I found myself with quite a bit of time on my hands, concentrating on running these two over-booked children to and from various sporting and intellectual activities.

Finally, I had easy access to my beloved fantasy novels – in English! – and to my delight discovered that there was a bright and flourishing fantasy powerhouse here in Queensland. I bought a lot of Ikea bookshelves and proceeded to quickly fill them. I’m a fast reader, and it didn’t take me long to run out of things to read.

At that time, the news was full of J K Rowling, the Writer That Made It Good. I thought about what she’d done to be successful, and decided it was that she’d made a story that was different from anyone else’s. Well, I knew an awful lot about Chinese culture, so why couldn’t I write a story that’s different as well – but in a different direction?

Then I thought about what my sister Fiona, in her cubicle in a government office, would like to read. She’d love some romance, a serious dose of ass-kicking, some intriguing fantasy elements, and of course some delicious angst, a Love That Can Never Be. Sexual tension and a strong female lead – so she can imagine herself in the position of this love-torn ass-kicker – would just make it better.

Just for fun I decided to add the love triangle of the strong hero, and the woman and man who both love him – and are also best friends. I was hoping for some jealousy between the two but they turned out to be BFF’s (Best Friends Forever!) and Leo was so noble about it I wanted to slap him.

It started with the mental image of the strong Chinese man in black, clipping his sword to the wall next to the front door of his Hong Kong apartment. I looked for a god who fitted that description, so I started doing a massive amount of research into the Chinese deities. I discovered Xuan Wu, the Dark Lord, whose colour is black and is the God of Martial Arts. Who is also a combination of a turtle and a snake. How weird was this? I delved deeper into his history and mythology, finding out more and more intriguing things about this very unusual god. And the story took off from there.

Kylie Chan

Read about Kylie’s next book, Small Shen!

We’ll have Kylie’s answers to more questions – on martial arts, and upcoming books – tomorrow!

Too far away? Go and visit Kylie’s website to read about her books, or visit Voyager Online for news on other great fantasy authors.

New Space Opera Anthology: Locus Awards shortlist announced

Congratulations to Jonathan Strahan and Gardner Dozois who edited The New Space Opera Anthology for HarperVoyager. The 2008 Locus Awards shortlist has been announced and there are five listings associated with this anthology.

* Dan Simmons features in the novella category for his story “Muse of Fire”

* Ken Macleod’s terrific “Who’s Afraid of Wolf 359?” is in the short story category.

* The anthology itself features in the Best Novella category

* Gardner Dozois is listed in the Best Editor category

* The wonderful cover artist Stephan Martiniere is in the Best Artist category.

Stephanie Smith

Getting it right … Fiona McIntosh guest blogs

Getting the world right for Percheron felt relatively straight-forward, especially once I’d visited cities such as Istanbul, Ephesus, Tunis, Dubai, Rhodes; each of them so different and yet that blending of the Eastern Med and the Gulf made Percheron feel so real in my imagination. I tend to do this for all my worlds. The Quickening, for instance, was a melding of all the places I’ve visited over many years of travel through northern Europe. I draw constantly on the real world rather than completely designing my story world from scratch. I like being anchored in that sense of reality whilst I allow my imagination to soar on the plot that the world supports.

So my worlds arrive in my mind relatively complete but the characters do not. Half the time I don’t even know what they look like. They must emerge, develop, mature … and then they flourish or die, depending on my moods, various whims and wherever and whatever situations they blunder into. I freely admit that I am one of those writers who punishes her characters with abandon and it does distress readers, I know. But I want to assure all reading this that I do not plan pain or death; I never set out to hurt a character or make them suffer. What happens simply happens because the story goes that way.

I take the approach of allowing back of brain to take care of business. I guess you could call me a “freefaller” – I turn up at my desk each morning with no preconceived idea of where the story should go or even who should be in that chapter. I begin to write and it’s as much a mystery to me as it may be to you reading my story for the first time, where it goes or what happens. I like it that way. It keeps me interested for starters. If I knew where the story had to go I genuinely believe I’d lose interest. I don’t like planning. I’ve tried it and failed. I set out on walks to plan a scene and before I know it I’m thinking of a movie I’ve enjoyed or making a mental grocery list, or planning what to cook for dinner! It just won’t gel in my head. And yet with my fingers poised over a keyboard, my eyes riveted on my Mac’s screen and I’m lost in the story and it comes to life for me. I see it in my mind’s eye like a movie unfolding and that’s another reason why I tend to write in a chronological manner.

Not planning can be scary – I’m sure it terrifies my editors, so I hope they don’t read this piece. I struggle enough with the synopsis that rarely gives them what they need and they know I’m lying anyway. But although not being able to plot ahead has its pitfalls i.e. I am often in book 2 and thinking how much better it could have been if I’d set up such and such in book 1, it also has the main advantage of giving me complete freedom to take the story wherever it wants to go. It keeps the storyline unpredictable and the reader unsure of who may survive from chapter to chapter…let alone book to book.

My favourite characters are usually ‘wounded’ men; aloof, secretive, passionate. I suspect Lazar in Percheron is a composite of all my favourite male characters rolled into one. I really enjoyed being with him in this story. In fact it’s rather amazing he made it through the trilogy but there was a sense of balance to the series that began with Lazar and also ended with him, although he was a changed man by the end.

Now why there is always a bird character in my tales is beyond me. Perhaps it’s because my writing room looks out across our garden and I’m forever watching the wild birds going about their daily business from season to season. The blackbirds are the greatest fun – so industrious, they just never stop and their babies are hilarious balls of fluff that nest beneath the eaves of our verandah. It’s always a big day in our household when a baby blackbird ventures out onto the grass and starts foraging around on its own. So that might explain why birds are part of my stories because they do seem to share our life – but I only realised this somewhere through writing Percheron and now it’s a sort of signature and I imagine there will always be a bird in my tales. There’s certainly one coming up in volume one of Valisar.

Royal Exile features a rather magnificent raven, who is modelled on a wonderful, huge young crow we nursed back to full health a couple of years back. I knew he’d have to feature in one of my stories. I hope you enjoy him when Royal Exile is released.

Fiona McIntosh

Visit Fiona’s website to find out more about her previous series.

Royal Exile will be released in Australia in September 2008

Fallon Friday: The 51 Sub-genres of Speculative Fiction

I am currently a mere 5 chapters from the end of The Chaos Crystal (Book 4 of the Tide Lords), so I’m shamelessly cheating here by reprinting a list I found on a booksellers site a couple of years ago. It blew me away when I saw it and a still can’t quite get my head around The 51 Sub-genres of Speculative Fiction.

Seriously … 51 of them.

Here is the list, along with a brief explanation of each. Read them and weep (with mirth).

Alien Beings — So… would an alien edition of Hamlet read “to being or not to being…”? Just a thought.

Alternate & Parallel Worlds — That would be stories set in the worlds where I am Mrs Pitt, yes?

Alternate History — That would be the one where in 1970, when they were laying the telephone cables in my street, someone from Telecom said, hang the expense, let’s use the good stuff in Number 15…

Apocalypse — The inevitable result of the next telemarketing call I get from Telstra offering me Broadband that they can’t deliver.

Arthurian Legend — Men in protective armour going after a precious cup while women swoon… hang on, isn’t that a football final?

Based on a Game — Please, anything but football…

Bestiary — Also known as anthropomorphism… giving human characteristics and the power of speech to animals. You know, like in parliament…

Bioengineering — Where they invent a vacuum cleaner that cares.

Colonization & terraforming — Isn’t that what we’re doing to our planet ? Completely buggering up the climate to suit ourselves?

Computers — Ah… Binary for Dummies and all other computer self-help books.

Cyberpunk — Computers, Mohawk haircuts, and body piercings, I’m sure.

Detective — It’s a crime they included this one on the list.

Dystopia-Utopia — A Utopia is where everybody is happy. A Dystopia is where they’re not. Sort of like the difference between medication time in a mental asylum and Iraq.

Ecology — Where the blood of your enemies… makes for really good fertilizer.

Fairy Tales — Of course, Ms Fallon, we can connect broadband to your home… Galactic Empires & Space Operas — Home of all the really cool evil overlords.

Graphic Novels & Comics — For boys who love comics but want to appear grown-up and edgy.

Hard Science — Because it often is.

Heroic — See Galactic Empires & Space Operas. Has a disturbing tendency to involve goat herders, prophesies and quests.

Historical or Fictional Characters — There’s a sentence that makes sense…

Human Comedy — Which is so much funnier than, like, rodent comedy.

Humorous — Anything else that’s funny which doesn’t involve humans, I suppose. Like cockroaches. There’s a chortle.

Immortality — Isn’t that where they put The Never Ending Story?

Inspirational — The Power of Positive… what… Space Travel? Spell Casting? I dunno… (Who made up this silly list?)

Lost Worlds — They’re always in the last place you look.

Love & Sex — Where you learn what it’s really like to do it in a zero-g environment, maybe?

Magic — Ta Da! Broadband in my house!

Messianic -Religious — Any book that inspires you to ask: Dear God, how did this get published?

Militaristic — Space Opera with bigger guns and people who say “siryessir!” a lot

Nanotechnology — One for the Little People.

New Wave — Because Old Wave is just sooo last year…

Parody — Plagiarism with jokes.

Political — Where the really nasty evil overlords lurk. The ones who can orate.

Psionic Powers — I’ll have to think about this one.

Quest — Involves rings, ancient swords, grails and prophesies. And often a hero.

Rites of Passage — Always starts with a teenage hero. Often ends in blood. May also involve goat herders and a quest.

Robots, Androids, Cyborgs — Because they’re machines and that way you don’t have to deal with that pesky characterisation thingy the publishers keep insisting on.

Saga, Myth, & Legend — Bit like the E! Channel with swords.

Science Fantasy — Scifi that ignores the basic laws of physics. Think Star Trek.

Shared Worlds and Franchise Universes — McScifi or McFantasy. Take your pick.

Short Stories — Not so much “world building” as “room building”

Social Criticism — Bad society, naughty society… you will have to be punished

Space Travel — Only if you’ve got FTL otherwise it’s very long and very boring… and please, do not, under any circumstances, mention the effect of time dilation.

Steam Punk — OK, you will never convince me that some publicist didn’t just make this category up because it sounded cool…

Superheroes — Without whom, the Lycra industry would have gone bust.

Sword & Sorcery — Where the spell is mightier than the sword.

Time Travel — Where you get to go back (or forward) and do it all again.

Urban — Fantasy set in cities… you know, where parking is free and public transport runs on time… that sort of thing.

Virtual reality — You just think you’re reading these books…

Women in — Women in? What sort of ridiculous genre is Women in?

Time Travel — see… I warned you…

World of Faerie — Fairy stories for the grown-ups who’d be reading graphic novels, if only they’d put more magic and cute chicks with wings in them.

Jennifer Fallon

Visit Jennifer Fallon’s website

Faster than Lighting …

Karen Miller will be doing an interview with Wolfgang from Faster Than Light in WA on Wednesday 7 May!

That’s at 12 noon for Sydney-siders (sorry, am biased since that’s where I am) … and if you’re not in WA then you can tune in through their website.

If Empress of Mijak was a film …

At the My Book, The Movie blog, Karen Miller speaks on the subject that everyone loves to discuss … if my book was a movie …

Starring Karl Lumbly (from Battlestar Galactica), Taye Diggs, Denzel Washington and more, coming to a movie screen near you, this summer (we wish!):

Empress of Mijak as a movie
 

Fallon Friday: Jennifer tells us about getting the language right

Welcome to the first of our ‘Fallon Fridays’ where fabulous author Jennifer Fallon writes about whatever is on her mind for the Voyager blog!

In my humble opinion, there shouldn’t be a single word in your MS that doesn’t advance the story, the plot, the characterisation or the world building (although there are authors who disagree with me). The key to good writing is to be clear and concise.

Just because you researched the ancient art of making glass beads out of recycled dung beetles so well that you can actually do it yourself, it doesn’t mean the reader needs to know about every minute step of the process, too, just because the queen appears briefly wearing a belt made of the aforementioned dung beetle glass beads on page 146.

Example:

“The sky overhead was heavy and dark. The ground squelched beneath his feet as he moved stealthily and silently towards the large, ghost-infested, mansion that was haunted.”

Hmmm, what have we here…

The sky overhead was heavy and dark.

Where else would the sky be?

The ground squelched beneath his feet

Where else would the ground be?

as he moved stealthily and silently

Two adverbs in a row… just shoot yourself now and be done with it, if you think this is a good description..:) And I’m sure I don’t need to point out that by definition, someone who is moving stealthily is not banging a drum as they go.

towards the large, ghost-infested, mansion that was haunted.

OK… even if we ignore the fact that by defintion, anything that is “ghost-infested” is also haunted, this is passive voice, something that belongs only in academic papers and is the reason they are so wretchedly boring to read, btw…

Corrected:

“The sky was heavy and dark. The ground squelched as he moved stealthily towards the haunted mansion.”

The other trap of genre writing in particular is the inappropriate use of language. Nothing will jerk a reader out of your sword and sorcery epic faster than your hero replying “Right on, dude!” when he’s asked to save the damsel in distress, (unless your story involves Keanu Reeves being sent back in time to bring the lost art of surfing to Roman Britain… hey, there’s a story!).

The language and references must reflect the character, the character’s knowledge, surrounding world and the setting. The village idiot isn’t likely to report that the enemy is advancing “in numbers commensurate with our enemy’s stated intention of annihilating us, my lord”, any more than the well-educated scribe the king has on stand-by would inform him that “there’s biggest mobs of them, boss.”

Be aware of the origin of words. Unless your story is set in our time, avoid identifiably 20th century words like “OK”, and be prepared to fight for the inclusion of others. I once had an argument with an editor over the word “artillery” because to her it meant modern warfare with guns. I had to prove it was a common reference in Roman times to win the fight.

The most classic and appalling misuse of language I can think of, however, is from the master himself. In The Hobbit, Tolkien describes Bilbo as being overwhelmed with a feeling of alarm:

“…he began to feel a shriek coming up inside, and very soon it burst out like the whistle of an engine coming out of a tunnel.”

Steam trains? In Middle Earth? I don’t think so…

Jennifer Fallon

For more from the brain of Jennifer Fallon, visit her website and blog.

And for more on her wonderful books – including her current series The Tide Lords – visit www.voyageronline.com.au

Karen Miller on the Tiptree Honour List

A note from Voyager Publisher, Stephanie Smith:

The James Triptree Jr Awards have been announced in the US and Empress of Mijak and The Riven Kingdom by Karen Miller (picture below) are both on the Honours List. Full listing can be found on the following site: http://www.sfawardswatch.com

The Tiptree is a specialised science fiction and fantasy award named in honour of Alice Sheldon who wrote under the name of James Tiptree Jr.

Congratulations to Karen Miller for her achievement!

Stephanie Smith

For those of you wanting more books for Karen Miller … look out for The Accidental Sorcerer by her alter ego, K E Mills.

Guest blog: Sara Douglass returns to Tencendor and tells us why

I swore years ago I would never return to Tencendor. I wept, I wailed, I’d had enough. I even blew the blasted place up so I wouldn’t have to go back. However … ten or so years later … I just sort of got curious about the concept.

Ten years had given me enough time to get over the entire Tencendor experience. I’d been very, very tired by the end of those six books. Partly it was the books themselves, partly it was because I had written them all so very quickly, and partly it was because at that stage I was extremely ill (I wrote the final three books when I was at my sickest and, looking back on them now, it shows). All in all, I was at my lowest ebb since I’d been a teenager. Everything connected with Tencendor had been tainted.

So I walked away from it and swore I’d never return.

But these things happen. I began to think about Axis again. He’d been such a wonderful character, so heroic, so flawed, so powerful, so selfish to the point of destroying the lives of those he loved the most. I thought I had taken him as far as I possibly could in the original six books, but now … now I was beginning to wonder. What if Axis was taken out of his world and put in another? How would he react with a different set of characters? A different problem? What if, distanced from his beloved Azhure, he met another woman? How would he manage? (Of course, all those who know and love Axis know for certain that he would talk himself into another love affair just because he would think it his right.)

There was another character I’d never developed to his full potential either – Axis’ father, StarDrifter. So I began to toy about with the idea of bringing back those two characters, and into a different world, and what better world and character to meet them up with than Maximilian Persimius from Beyond the Hanging Wall? I’d never taken Maximilian as far as I wanted, as well … and before I knew it, there was Threshold beckoning too, and suddenly I found myself constructing a new series based on three of my former worlds, Tencendor, Escator and Ashdod. I’d never been very keen on doing sequels to any of these worlds individually, but doing them together – that was a challenge I could not resist. Then HarperCollins got keen, and the rest, as they say, is history.

I am having enormous fun with Axis in this series. Currently only one book is out, but book two, The Twisted Citadel, is due out shortly, and I am writing the third now, so for me the series is almost complete. In book one Axis doesn’t have as much exposure as the lead character in that book, Maximilian, but books two and three feature Axis heavily. His relationship with his father is, as always, a problem, especially as StarDrifter soon has another glorious son to occupy his affections. Axis also (how could I resist?) meets another woman. I loved Azhure in the Tencendor books, but I had no qualms about not bringing her back this time. I wanted to give Axis a fresh challenge, and what better challenge than to fall in love with a Skraeling? (Well, okay, a half Skraeling, but it is enough.) Given Axis’ history with the Skraelings (who are, of course, back in their full hateful force this time, too) this is bound to be problematic.

I’m also enjoying developing the Skraelings. I have never done much with them apart from having the silly wraiths mass about in ghastly hordes and attach themselves to the most evil lord they can find. But where did those Skraelings come from, and what is their history? In the first book you meet the Lealfast, who are half Skraeling, half Icarii. They are beautiful, magical creatures … and much of that magic appears to come from their Skraeling blood. How? What was it that the Skraelings had to bequeath them? So by book three (tentatively titled The River Angels but I am almost certain you can expect that to change), you will get the chance to really delve back into the Skraeling past … and find a few surprises.

Naturally, it is bound to upset Axis!

Now I have become carried away — which just shows how enthusiastic I am about the new series. I am truly enjoying saddling up my horse and travelling with Axis again, and I am equally as certain that once DarkGlass Mountain is done, there will be new worlds waiting for him to explore. Axis is looking for peace, but he won’t find it in the battle for Elcho Falling.

Oh, as a final note, where in the world did the name Elcho Falling come from? I had developed the idea of this enchanted citadel rising from the past … and I had to find it a name. One evening I was browsing through a British book of photography, dating from the 1930s. One photograph was of that quintessential scene, the lazy English afternoon tea party on the lawns of the country house. The caption under the photograph named the people within, and one man was identified as the Lord of Elcho. Oh, I just fell in love with the name right there and then, and ‘falling’ just ‘fell’ in beside it (I wanted something fairly sad and evocative). Thus Elcho Falling.

Sara Douglass

For a limited time only, The Serpent Bride, and the three books of the Wayfarer Redemption trilogy – with beautiful new covers – Sinner, Pilgrim and Crusader are available for just $9.99 each throughout Australia.

Jenny’s Supanova wrap up

Well, what can I say, after 10 days, not much sleep and lots of fun, Supanova is done for another 10 weeks when we foolishly do it all over again in Sydney and Perth.

In the meantime, here are the highlights:

Getting by on 3 hours sleep a night for 10 days

Drinking shots with the disturbingly innocuous name of “Jelly Donuts” with Michael Winslow (Police Academy, Spaceballs) (below) and his crazy wife Sharon in the hotel bar in the wee small hours of the morning.

Hugging the Hulk

Meeting R2D2

 

Discussing with Jewel Staite what it’s like to work with Joss Whedon over a dinner that didn’t get served until 11:00 pm Pitching nutty superhero ideas to the Marvel Comics talent scout

Doing a book launch about an immortal who wants to die in conjunction with that well known supporter of all things literary: the WWF.

Making friends with the really nice people from the Dr Who Fan Club in Melbourne

Having one of my books go for $160 in a charity auction for the Starlight Foundation

Catching up with the boys from Joffre Street again

Watching everybody fall in love my son and his wife (we are now known collectively as the Fallon Mafia)

Hotel breakfasts

Watching some unsuspecting visitor in the carpark ask for a photo with a Storm Trooper who then made him pose on his knees with his hands behind his head before he’d let the poor guy’s girlfriend take the photo

Drooling over original artwork of brilliant artists like Greg Horn and Arthur Sudym that the fans never got to see.

Trying to keep a straight face when I told one particularly gorgeous actress (in her 30s) that my son thought she was stunning and she responded with a thoughtful smile and the question: “Is he familiar with the film The Graduate?”

 Hearing The Palace of Impossible Dreams read by John Rhys Davies. In a wrestling ring, no less.

Finding out that since the last time you saw him, one of your friends (Marco Nero) has won an Oscar.

Watching the Melbourne Storm Trooper Legion 501 take over the car park and bully everyone into parking properly.

Getting to see the super-secret X Files II trailer

Did I mention hugging The Hulk?

Getting to visit the coolest nightclubs in town (particularly when you are let in by the security guards past the rest of the lined-up patrons in their sparkly little minis after their hours of preparation to look faaabulous  while they wonder how that tubby, middle-aged chick, that nobody knows, got in ahead of them…hehehe)

(left) Discussing with Jewel Staite the characterisation of the various characters on Stargate Atlantis and how we’d like to see them develop

Visiting Movie World as a “celebrity”

Losing my voice from talking so much

Doing a World Building Master Class with 20 talented people who used the word “fantastic” a lot to describe what they thought of it.

 

Meeting hundreds of great fans, some of whom actually went “squeee!!”

Jennifer Fallon

And for more news from Jennifer – and all the latest on her work – visit her fabulous website.