Tag: fantasy

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Spotlight on SFF Gatherings with Alex Davis, Joanne Hall, and Steven Poore

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Reading is a solitary pastime, yet social gatherings lie at the heart of many reading and writing communities. From small get-togethers, such as book clubs and writer’s groups, to large conventions with thousands of attendees, there is something for everyone. These gatherings serve as meeting places for like-minded enthusiasts to discuss everything from the newest book releases to the trials and tribulations of the publishing world.

Susan Boulton, author of the Gaslight fantasy Oracle, went to her first SFF convention back in 2006. “I went (to Eastercon UK) because a fellow writer had persuaded me to go, saying it would give me a feel for the genre and the publishing business as a whole. I went, enjoyed it in some ways, but in others I found it very overwhelming and intimidating. I decided not to go to another. I then received an email from someone I had met there, saying they had enjoyed meeting me and looked forward to seeing me again at another convention. So I thought I would book to go just for the day to the British FantasyCon.

“I was surprised at how many people, who I had met at Eastercon, remembered me, and introduced me to others. I came to realise that, yes, the business side of conventions is interesting, helping you understand publishing and make contacts, but far more important is the friendships that you make. You share the pleasure of seeing the various guests of Honour, panels and events, but you also enjoy the days and nights spent talking not only about the genre, but everything and anything.”

Sometimes genre gatherings can serve as work inspiration. Librarian Tina Panik, who organizes a yearly local convention besides fandom meet-ups, regularly attends the New York Comic Con fishing for ideas she can use in her job. Tina, the reference and adult services manager for her library, believes that, “The best way to bring the stories, characters, and images from the comic and graphic novel world to life is to attend a con. Between the people, the cosplay, and the guest speakers, your imagination will ignite with ideas. The crowds are friendly, the experts are willing to share, and the merchandise is fantastic.”

There are certainly plenty of reasons to attend genre get-togethers. But what happens on the other side, the backstage, so to speak? What’s it like organizing an event, bringing together readers and authors, fans and trade professionals? I’ve invited three guests to tell us a little about what goes into running SFF meet-ups and conventions.

Writer and editor Alex Davis is the author of The Last War (Tickety Boo Press, 2015), the first novel in his science fiction Noukari Trilogy, besides several short stories. Alex also runs a local press, Boo Books, and organizes a twice-yearly convention in Derby. Edge-Lit – and it’s brand new winter offshoot Sledge-Lit – includes ‘panels, readings, workshops, book launches and plenty more besides’ in a one day event that aims to be friendly and welcoming. Alex is also chairing the 2016 edition of the UK national FantasyCon, organized by the British Fantasy Society.

Joanne Hall, Acquisitions Editor for Kristell Ink, is the author of numerous short stories and novels, including The Art of Forgetting duology (Kristell Ink, 2013-2014) and Spark and Carousel (Kristell Ink, 2015). Joanne has chaired Bristol’s only science fiction and fantasy convention – BristolCon – for the past six years, and also runs the Bristol Fantasy and SF Society Facebook page. The one-day BristolCon has panels, workshops, kaffeklatsches, an art show and a dealer’s section, and aims to be a ‘fun, friendly and informative addition to the UK’s convention calendar’.

Steven Poore is the author of The Heir to the North (Kristell Ink, 2015), the first in his Malessar’s Curse duology (the sequel, The High King’s Vengeance, is due in late 2016), besides the ongoing science fiction series The Empire Dance and several short stories. Steven organizes the Sheffield Fantasy and Science Fiction Social Club (SFSF Social), a semi-regular gathering in an informal setting that brings genre enthusiasts together for author readings and Q&A’s, giveaways, and plenty of good conversation.

Juliana: What were some of the first SFF events you attended, that sparked off your interest for this sort of gathering?

Alex: Most of my initial engagement in writing events was with book festivals and writing groups, so that was all kinds of different genres. But I was always hugely interested and a big fan of genre fiction, so that was always an area I wanted to explore – and I think it’s fair to say genre fiction doesn’t always get a fair crack of the whip where it comes to literature festivals. So when all my volunteering work led me to a paid role as Literature Development Officer, I was really keen to get something going with a real literary feel but looking at genre fiction, which is where Alt.Fiction came from back in 2005. My first convention-going experience was EasterCon in Glasgow, which helped to crystallise a lot of what I really wanted from my event – a focus on writing, pure and simple, without any of the added elements that come at a multimedia convention.

Steven: Before Alex Bardy started up the York Pubmeets, there wasn’t anything happening up here apart from EdgeLit and the usual annual conventions. Angry Robot had brought five of their authors to Sheffield once, for an afternoon, but that really was it. Alex told me about his idea and convinced me to come up to York, with a couple of friends, to attend the first Pubmeet, where David Tallerman and Janine Ashbless were reading. Actually, I didn’t need all that much convincing.

Joanne: The first big SFF event I remember attending was FantasyCon in Nottingham. I’m not sure what year it was but Neil Gaiman and Clive Barker were there. I don’t think I got as much out of it as I could – I hadn’t been to a convention before and I didn’t really know anyone and I was very shy. After that I went to a few commercial events, and for a few years I attended MicroCon, which is the long running convention organised by Exeter University’s SF society, which helped me get over some of my shyness and made me want to attend bigger conventions again!

Juliana: How did you move from simply attending to helping organize SFF gatherings? 

Alex: My role at Derby City Council gave me the freedom to run a host of different events, and I was a bit nervous to pitch Alt.Fiction as an event to my boss at the time. But luckily enough they went for it and I even managed to get some Arts Council funding, which was a huge help. Immediately I had a feel there was a hugely welcoming community there, and people were amazingly willing to help and support me in getting something new off the ground. Having run the one event I found myself getting a lot more active, becoming much more aware of the many conventions going on and attending things like FantasyCon and NewCon.

Joanne: It was a combination of beer and being broke…

I was in the pub with my friend Colin, and we were chatting about what a shame it was a city like Bristol, which has a thriving SFF scene, didn’t have its own convention, and what a financial burden it was to have to travel to London or Nottingham or Brighton for the big three-day cons. We decided what we wanted was a local, affordable convention, and as the conversation became more… lubricated… it sounded like a better and better idea to organise one ourselves. So we did. The first BristolCon ran for an afternoon and had around sixty attendees, but everyone had such a great time that we immediately decided that we were going to do another one.

Steven: I blame Alex. It’s all his fault. 🙂 After the first Pubmeet I talked to him at Fantasycon and said “If only there was something like this in Sheffield.” He vanished, then came back and said, “Adrian Tchaikovsky will do a reading for you.” And suddenly I was an event organiser.

Juliana: Could you tell us a little about the events you’re currently involved in?

Joanne: I’m currently the chair of BristolCon – we have a committee of about 10-12 people who organise it and my job is to keep them on track and to occasionally keep the peace between them! BristolCon is a one-day convention that takes place in Bristol every October; this years’ event takes place on October 29th and our Guests of Honour are Ken Macleod and Sarah Pinborough, while our Artist GOH is Fangorn. You can find all kinds of information about it at www.bristolcon.org. It’s great fun, it’s a really friendly event, and very relaxed.

Steven: Mainly it’s the Sheffield Fantasy & Science Fiction Social, which we abbreviate to SFSF (“We” being myself and fellow fans Kathryn, Darren and Sara). We’ve hosted authors from as far afield as Chesterfield and San Francisco! We’ve found that the structure of readings & Q&A sessions, followed by giveaways, is one that really does work and doesn’t need much fiddling with. SRFC [Super Relaxed Fantasy Club] have really set the bar for us in that respect. We have started to change it up a little as we’ve become more confident – last time we hosted an Ask The Agent session with Amanda Rutter, and our next Social will feature Adele Wearing talking about the award-winning Fox Spirit Books.

Alex: I’ve got two main events on the go at the moment – in July I’m running the fifth Edge-Lit event, which takes place at QUAD in Derby on the 16th July. We had a really big year last year with about 250 people attending, so we’re looking forward to expanding on that while keeping the friendly and welcoming vibe which has made the event so popular over the years.

This year I’m also chairing the British Fantasy Convention, FantasyCon, which will be taking place in Scarborough from the 23rd-25th September – the hotel is right by the beach, so we’ve dubbed it FantasyCon By The Sea! We’re expecting around 500 people for that, potentially more, so it’s definitely a big undertaking but hugely exciting. We’ve already announced a couple of great Guests of Honour, and have plenty more goodies up our sleeves yet!

You can check out those gigs at www.derbyquad.co.uk and Fantasyconbythesea.com respectively. 

Juliana: What are the biggest challenges in putting together an event of this sort?

Joanne: I think the first big challenge is finding a suitable venue – one that’s accessible and affordable, with good transport links and the right sort of layout to run panels and workshops and provide social space. Then you need a good team of people – no one can run a convention without help, but organising a team of unpaid volunteers brings its own challenges. Everyone who is involved in BristolCon is there because they want to support the con, but they don’t always agree on the best way to go about it!

Alex: For me any event is made up of a certain number of processes – there’s a lot of logistics and a lot of ins and outs, and things can live and die on what look like small details. The one thing that’s always difficult is programming, connecting with the right authors and speakers and getting the right kind of balance in terms of panels, workshops and other activities. You need to have things that are insightful but also enjoyable. Guests of Honour are also a unique challenge, as high-profile and bestselling authors tend to get booked up early. 

Steven: Getting the word out to people. This is the frustrating part, and the nerve-wracking part, for me. There must be so many people in South Yorkshire who read SFF, but they don’t know the Socials are there. That means you get folks on the city council who think there isn’t a demand, so they don’t want to know when you’ve got something to offer them and so on… I always worry that nobody’s going to turn up. For someone who has an on-off relationship with crowds, that’s a weird feeling.

Juliana: And what do you find are the biggest rewards? What is it that keeps you going? 

Steven: Meeting new people who are just as enthusiastic as I am about the genre – that’s the big one. And when you hear feedback about the events, that makes it all worthwhile.

Alex: Basically it’s being there on the day, seeing it happen and seeing people enjoying themselves and hopefully being inspired by the event! The whole thing has no life other than on paper for the better part of a year, and to see all of that come together over the matter of a few days is just phenomenal. It’s exciting also to see an event grow and expand – seeing the comments on social media post-event gives you a nice warm glow!

Joanne: The cake (anyone who has been to BristolCon knows about the cake…)

Seriously, the biggest reward is seeing everyone have a good time, seeing people really fired up with enthusiasm for this thing you’ve organised. For me one of the most brilliant things has been watching people who came to BristolCon as novice or unpublished writers go on to write books, sign deals, have great success and come back as panellists. I like to think that the things they gained from attending BristolCon helped them on that path. A big part of our remit is to encourage emerging local talent, with both BristolCon and our Fringe events, and when we achieve that it’s a great feeling.

Juliana: The baby steps question! For anyone interested in starting up some sort of SFF meet-up or event in their area, what tips can you share?

Joanne: I wouldn’t suggest they throw themselves straight into con-running – BristolCon grew from an existing SFF group in the city. But if anyone out there wants to start an SFF group, pub meets or reading nights, I’d say go for it. It doesn’t take as much organisation as you might think. You just need a room or space in a friendly local pub or community centre (and I’d like to give a shout out to The Shakespeare Tavern on Prince Street which is the SFF pub-hub where we have all our pub nights, Fringe Readings and BristolCon committee meetings), and some like-minded people. If you’re doing readings you will also need some kind of portable PA system if your pub doesn’t have one.

We do all our shout-outs and interaction via social media, either on Facebook (The Bristol Fantasy and SF Society) or Twitter (@hierath77).

Steven: Don’t be afraid to ask. Authors want an audience. Even if they have to decline first time around, if you’re polite and professional (hopefully I’m getting there!) they’ll remember you’re there. And be realistic about what you can achieve – don’t try to run a whole con on your first date! And remember that everybody wants an event to succeed and be fun.

Alex: For me there are two things you need to do before starting – find a venue and have a budget that works. If you don’t have those two, then you don’t have any event. Look around for the right place, somewhere you want to work with, somewhere that gets what you’re about. Then make sure you have a few quid to get things rolling – you can often sell tickets, depending what kind of event it is – but you’ll probably need some cash for authors, venue costs, marketing… also don’t be shy to have a word with some other event organisers, most are very happy to help and offer advice! 

Juliana: If you were given an unlimited event-going budget, what would be on your wish list of cons and gatherings? 

Alex: Being as I live in the UK, I’d love to get over to the US and go to some of the big conventions over there! Something like a World Fantasy Convention or World Horror Convention would be fantastic. 

Joanne: I’d like to go to some of the big American conventions – I’ve heard very good things about WisCon and Convergence, so they would both be on my wish list. And I’d like to go to WorldCon in Helsinki in 2017 – that looks like it’s going to be amazing!

Steven: I keep looking at Nine Worlds and thinking if only my budget would stretch… and WorldCon in Helsinki. And the BristolCon Fringe. All of them, to be honest!

Juliana: If you could invite any three authors, living or dead, to attend your next SFF event, who would you pick? 

Alex: Blimey, there’s a question! For living authors I’d absolutely love to have Michael Moorcock, who was such a formative part of my teenage years and a huge influence on me. Unfortunately my other two favourite authors of all time are no longer with us – Ray Bradbury and JG Ballard. That would have been some line-up!

Steven: Tad Williams. Mary Shelley. Iain M Banks. There would be many more, but heck, one event at a time! 🙂

Joanne: I’d like to pick three authors we would have liked to have had at any BristolCon if the circumstances had been different. So, Diana Wynne Jones, Iain M Banks and the late great Colin Harvey, because it was all his drunken idea in the first place….

Juliana: Thank you very much to Alex, Joanne, and Steven for sharing a little of what goes into organizing genre events. Here’s to many more years of successful gatherings! And cake.

Steven Poore blogs at http://stevenpoore.wordpress.com, and you can also find him on Facebook: facebook.com/thestevenpoore. On Twitter, he tweets both as @stevenjpoore and as @SFSFSocial, the Sheffield Fantasy and Science Fiction Social’s account.

For more information on her work, as well as blog posts and reviews, check out Joanne Hall’s website at https://hierath.wordpress.com. You can find Joanne on Twitter @hierath77, and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/Hierath77/?ref=br_rs.

Alex Davis shares interviews, writing advice, and information on his work at  http://alexblogsabout.com, as well as on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/alex.davis.161446. Alex tweets as @AlexDavis1981.

 

Find further information on the events mentioned at:

http://sfsfsocial.wordpress.com (First social of the year: February 20th, 2016)

http://www.derbyquad.co.uk/special-event/edge-lit-5 (July 16th, 2016)

http://fantasyconbythesea.com/ (September 23rd-25th, 2016)

www.bristolcon.org (October 29th, 2016)

 

 

Spotlight is a monthly blog feature. Check out December’s Spotlight on Mythology in Fantasy with Snorri Kristjansson and Kerry Buchanan. Next up in February: Spotlight on Making Time to Write.

 

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Spotlight on Mythology in Fantasy with Snorri Kristjansson and Kerry Buchanan

Mythology and religion have always provided a rich well of ideas for writers to draw upon, inspiring a vast range of novels, from Dante Alighieri’s classic The Divine Comedy to Suzanne Collins’ best selling hit The Hunger Games. Some works touch lightly upon the source material, such as Elizabeth Bear’s Eternal Sky trilogy, inspired by Central Asia and the Mongolian steppe. Others, such as Kevin Hearne’s Iron Druid Chronicles, are more faithful to the world they borrow from.

Fantasy as a genre is steeped in lore and legend, offering pages liberally sprinkled with deities and divinities, magic and prophecy, and epic battles between good and evil. And although J.R.R. Tolkien’s Norse-inspired Lord of the Rings set the tone for fantasy for many years, there is inspiration to be found in a variety of places. Jay Kristoff’s Lotus War trilogy borrows from Japanese culture and heritage. Cindy Pon’s YA work, such as her most recent novel Serpentine, delves into Chinese mythology. Saladin Ahmed’s Throne of the Crescent Moon tips its hat to Middle Eastern lore. And Rick Riordan, best known for his Greek Mythology-based Percy Jackson novels, turned to the Egyptian gods for his Kane Chronicles trilogy.

I’ve invited two guests, whose work dives deep into mythology, to help dig a little into why fantasy is so intrinsically linked to legend and lore.

Icelandic writer and teacher Snorri Kristjansson is the author of The Valhalla Saga, with the fabulously named Swords of Good Men and Blood Will Follow. The third in the trilogy, Path of Gods, came out in July in the UK and arrives January 5th in the USA. Set in Viking Norway, in Kristjansson’s exciting prose the Norse gods are very much alive and determined to sway the fate of mankind.

English-born Kerry Buchanan is lucky enough to live on a horse farm in Northern Ireland, where the sweeping views alone are an inspiration. Often drawing upon the mythology of her adopted country in her writing, Kerry has a number of published short stories and is busily editing a novel that jumps head first into Celtic lore.

Juliana: Welcome Snorri and Kerry. First of all, the obvious question: why mythology? What draws you to write about these myths and legends?

Snorri: Because Norse mythology is cheerfully insane. When the wind howls outside your hut and all you have for heating is your flock of sheep, you’re going to need some good stories to keep you warm. In addition, while at times entertainingly insidious it is also heavy on the skull-cracking, which is relevant to my interests.

Kerry: Firstly, thank you for inviting us to contribute, Juliana. You’ve asked some great questions, too.

Mythology has always fascinated me. My Irish grandparents told me stories when I was very young, which became twisted up in my memory: The Morrigan and Cú Chulainn and the Tuatha dé Danaan.

On my father’s side, I grew up with tales of ancient Greek mythology and the tales of Homer, but my first introduction to British myths and legends was when I bought an old copy of Malory’s Morte d’Arthur from a charity shop, age around ten or so. I was lost from then on. Pretty much everything I write has threads of myth and legend running through it. And dragons. Usually dragons feature somewhere. 

Juliana: Religious myths – whether borrowed, such as in your own work, or created from scratch – are a staple in fantasy. What do all these gods and goddesses bring to the literary table? Why do you think mythology is so central to the genre?

Snorri: (I am fully aware that all of this is grossly simplified and worthy of many more words, but here goes) One of the attractions of involving higher powers might be that we get a step back-view on morality – we struggle to see our own actions in context (and by extension our own privilege and god-like status, if you will), but if we take a deity and either bring them down into our world or smash them into other deities, cause and effect get highlighted. Also, Gods often bring with them simplified morality and easy way of doing good-vs-evil on a grand scale. 

Kerry: I think the attraction of them is their power, and the way they interact with mortals. A human can be wandering along, minding their own business, when an irate or amorous god or goddess descends and turns their life upside down. They can never seem to keep themselves from meddling!

The French philosopher, Voltaire, once said that if God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him. Perhaps we need to have a power stronger than us to stay sane, but powerful entities appear in many branches of fiction, not just SFF. Remember Lord Frith, the Black Rabbit and El Ahrairah in Watership Down?

The late, great Sir Terry Pratchett had an interesting view of gods and goddesses in his Discworld novels. They would watch from Dunmanifestin (Discworld equivalent of Mt Olympus) as humans lived or died on the roll of a dice in the gods’ great game. Wonderful names, too, from Offler, the crocodile god to Annoia, goddess of things that get stuck in drawers.

Religious beings in fiction bring an element of unpredictability to a story. With enormous power and superhuman gifts, they can be a powerful force for good or evil. If the main character can’t beat them with strength or skill, he has to outwit them, and that makes for exciting plot twists. 

Juliana: What are the easy pitfalls writers can run into when using mythology in their work, the most common mistakes? 

Kerry: Many of these mythologies are well known folk tales, close to people’s hearts. If a story deviates from the ‘known’ facts, or portrays a character in an unfamiliar light, those who love them can be quite upset. Not only that, but there can be dozens of variations on a particular mythology, and many stories, even those from different countries, have parallels with each other, or characters in common. The names may vary, but their characteristics often don’t.

It’s can also be hard to resist the temptation to make your mythological characters invincible, or foolproof, but the best characters are flawed. Perfection wins few friends, both in real life and in fiction, so I think it’s important to write in vulnerability or weakness. No one should be perfectly likeable — or perfectly hateable either for that matter. 

Snorri: For me, it’s stakes. How do you reconcile the fact that deities can do anything? How do you then make a human’s actions mean something? There are all kinds of mess you can get into. How does the religious space alien interact with the world? Is there a lot of smiting, or are we doing the Greek pawns-in-a-game thing, with Gods and Goddesses picking favourites? Like in general storytelling, you have to preserve clarity, know what you’re doing and know why. In fact, there is a process for avoiding pitfalls, and it is fairly simple.

1) Read Robert Jackson Bennett’s ‘City of Stairs’.
2) Cry angry tears at how good it is, and how you’ll never get that good.
2b) Wipe your tears away. They make it hard to see the screen/notebook/vellum.
3) Have a cup of tea.
4) Start again, and do your thing. But mind the stakes.

Juliana: When writing fiction based on existing mythologies it must be hard to walk the line between remaining faithful to the source material while making it your own story. Could you share some tips for successfully navigating these waters? 

Snorri: Find the blind spots. Even the most exacting of mythologies have vast, gaping holes in ’em. Find a space where no-one has talked about what happened, and work with that. I think what makes already established deities work in stories is when there is enough to hang your hat on, but also something extra. Joanne Harris’ Gospel of Loki does this very well, and I’ll even forgive the Marvel Loki for existing.

Alternately, just go for it. Write what you want. Just make sure you buy at least one of Kristjansson’s Smite-Free Amulets first. For safety, you know.

Kerry: For my part, I play fast and loose with small details, but I try where possible to keep to the spirit of characters from myths I love. Perhaps that makes me the last person to be advising other writers, because in a sense I’ve chosen the easy route, but many of these stories are based on ages-old oral tradition, so I tell myself the details must surely have shifted over the centuries. Like Chinese whispers.

I would love to learn more of the Norse mythology Snorri writes about. I have only the sketchiest knowledge, which is a defect I intend to remedy as soon as I can. I’ll probably start with Snorri’s books, which have been on my To Be Read list for some time. 

Juliana: What are some of the mythology-based works that inspire you as a reader? How about as a writer? (Movies also count!) 

Kerry: Who could not cite Tolkien? The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings are books I still re-read pretty much every year. His world-building is incredible, right down to the languages and writing. Impossible not to admire and be inspired by him. Some of the Peter Jackson movies irritated me, especially the Hobbit trilogy, but he certainly did a spectacular job with Lord of the Rings.

One of my main inspirations was and still is the talented Mary Stewart whose Merlin Trilogy is another series I read countless times as I was growing up. Her portrayal of Merlin has undoubtedly influenced the way I’ve written my own characters, and she was an amazing writer across several genres. Sadly, she died last year.

I also loved the slightly off the wall interpretation of Arthurian myth by T. H. White. The Once and Future King was another major inspiration for the Merlin-type character in my current novel, The Blacksmith’s Apprentice. 

Snorri: Peter Madsen and Hans Rancke-Madsen’s Norse Mythology comics from the 80’s influenced me hugely as a child. These days, the aforementioned RJB counts, as does Terry Pratchett. Eventually, all stories about Gods are stories about ourselves, and Small Gods taught me plenty about religion and faith. There’s bits and bobs from here and there, but those are big’uns. 

Juliana: And last of all, since we’re at the year’s end, which are some of your favorite books you read in 2015? Any theme, any genre! 

Snorri: I devoured – no, inhaled Joe Abercrombie’s Shattered Sea trilogy, cursing under my breath at how a Brit could somehow be so Norse. That being said, a frequent theme in his interviews is the crushing of his enemies’ skulls, so perhaps I should not have been surprised. Highly recommended reading. 

Kerry: A series of books I discovered in 2015 are the time-travelling novels, The Chronicles of St Mary’s by Jodi Taylor. She and her main character, Max, both break a lot of rules, but I find her books are un-put-downable.

My other favourites are Goblin Moon and Hobgoblin Night by Teresa Egerton. As I read them, I wondered why it had taken me so long to discover her. Her gentle humour and wonderful characters made both books an absolute pleasure to read.

Another new book I read this year is Inish Carraig, by Jo Zebedee. Nothing gentle about this one – it is a science fiction story set in near-future Belfast and follows the lives of a policeman, Inspector Carter, and two teenage boys, John and Taz, as they try to survive in post-invasion Northern Ireland. Two alien races have settled in the country, and the humans are caught in the middle, with painful and dangerous results. I think I read this novel in one white-knuckled sitting…. 

Juliana: Thank you both so much for joining me here, I’ve enjoyed your answers tremendously. Hopefully there will be no divine smiting of my blog after treading the dangerous waters of skull-cracking, passionate Norse and Celtic deities. I think I’ll take a dozen of Snorri’s amulets, though, just to be on the safe side…

Check out Snorri Kristjansson’s website for news, book information and blog: http://snorrikristjansson.com. You can also find Snorri on Facebook and on Twitter, as @SnorriKristjans.

For more information on Kerry Buchanan’s work, go to http://www.kerrybuchanan.co.uk. Kerry is also on Twitter as @Cavetraveller.

 

Spotlight is a monthly blog feature. Check out November’s Spotlight on SFF Editing with Teresa Edgerton and Richard Shealy. Next up in January: Spotlight on SFF Gatherings.

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Spotlight on SFF Editing with Teresa Edgerton and Richard Shealy

So you’ve finally finished that shiny first draft of your novel. Or maybe it’s not your first draft, but your tenth, and you’ve already submitted it to several places and the rejections are piling up. Perhaps you have no intention of submitting it anywhere, but have chosen to self-publish instead. Whatever your reasons, there comes a point in the process where beta readers and peer critiques can only get you so much further. And eventually you start listening to the whispers that say, “Get thee to an editor.”

There are many different facets to a novel’s post-production, and editing is a crucial step toward publication. Two important sides of this particular coin are developmental editing, which handles the wider plot issues such as ideas, story flow, pacing, characters, and other ‘big-picture’ aspects; and copyediting, which takes the micro rather than the macro view, and will not only check your spelling and punctuation but comb the details for inconsistencies. If you are traditionally published your publishing house will handle all this for you. If you are going it alone, you’ll be in charge of deciding who gets to do these things and how much outside help to bring in.

Online, I frequently see people asking about editing, and there seems to be a lot of confusion about what it entails. So I’ve invited two guests to explain a little more about this rather mysterious and often underappreciated side of the writing process.

In the developmental corner, fantasy author and freelance editor Teresa Edgerton is here to share her expertise. She has nine novels published under her own name, and two more under the pen name Madeline Howard. These include The Rune of Unmaking duology (Harper Collins, 2004-2007) and the Mask & Dagger duology (Ace, 1991 and revised edition by Tickety Boo Press, 2014-2015). Teresa has taught numerous workshops and writing classes, and has worked as a developmental editor for many years. Currently she juggles her freelance work with her own writing, and has just accepted a third role, as editor for a brand new speculative romance imprint, Venus Ascending at Tickety Boo Press.

In the copyeditor’s corner is Science Fiction and Fantasy specialist Richard Shealy. With dozens and dozens of books under his belt, Richard has worked with many top present-day SFF authors including Chuck Wendig, Kameron Hurley, Aidan Moher, and Laura Anne Gilman. After doctoral work in linguistics, Richard taught French and English and worked for years as a translator before dipping his toe into editorial work. Now he works both for established publishing houses, such as Tor and Hachette, and for independent authors, editing a variety of genres although his main focus tends to be speculative fiction.

Juliana: Welcome Teresa and Richard. Could you start by sharing what led you to begin working with editing? And why specialize in speculative fiction?

Richard: I’ve been a lifelong reader of SF/F; I quite literally cannot recall a time when I did not read it. I’ve also been an equally longtime word nerd; it’s just a mindset where I absorb and analyze linguistic aspects subconsciously, hence the eventual realization that I liked linguistics enough to do grad work in it. As a result, I’ve always had a bit of a twitchy reaction when seeing glaring multiple errors in a published genre book, so when it finally came to my conscious attention that there was a profession where 1) I could read SF/F all day, 2) point out the warts on other people’s babies and 3) get paid for those, I couldn’t sign up fast enough!

Teresa: Editing is something I have wanted to do for a long time. I can’t remember exactly when and why I decided it was finally time to make the leap into freelance editing.

I started editing for Tickety Boo Press because Gary Compton, the publisher, asked me to, and offered me two manuscripts to work on that I thought would be exciting to do: Jo Zebedee’s space opera, Abendau’s Heir, and Susan Boulton’s Gaslight fantasy, Oracle. Two very different books, but I’d edited all sorts of speculative fiction as a freelancer, so in that way it was what I had been doing all along, and the concepts and particularly the characters intrigued me. Both Jo and Sue were a pleasure to work with.

Then Gary and I thought up Venus Ascending together, an imprint to publish science fiction and fantasy romance, and it was his idea that I would be heading up the imprint as well as acquiring and editing the manuscripts. I am thrilled at the opportunity.

Why speculative fiction? Because it’s what I know, since most of my reading for many years has been fantasy and science fiction, and because it is what I write. I feel that I have more to offer speculative fiction writers than other editors might. I understand the genres and sub-genres, and I’ve educated myself on a lot of things, researched many subjects that are relevant to the fantasy especially and that often come up in the manuscripts I edit.

Juliana: Would you mind giving us a quick breakdown of what your job as an editor involves, from the moment you receive a new manuscript to delivery of completed work?  

Teresa: When working on a manuscript I have two goals: to help the writer make that particular story the best that it can be, and to do so in such a way that it will also help the author to improve his or her writing skills. Part of it is teaching as well as editing.

I do developmental editing, concentrating on the big issues like plot, characterization, style, world-building (which is where some of my research often comes in), pacing. I leave the grammar and punctuation, the word usage and the like to the copy editors.

I read through the manuscript making notes as I go, addressing problems as they come up: an expository lump, an out of character action, a mixed metaphor, and so forth. I used to print up hardcopy and make my notes in pencil, then translate my scribbles into something more coherent as I typed my remarks and suggestions into the manuscript file. Now I save paper and ink by sending the manuscript to my Kindle and reading it that way, highlighting anything that catches my attention and making my pencil notes in a composition book. From there, the process is the same as it used to be. Then I write a separate, in-depth and wide-ranging assessment of the book, covering everything I think is of particular importance to that particular manuscript. I make a lot of suggestions for improving the story, and I explain why I think a change ought to be made. If I can help them to understand why, they are more likely to come up with their own solutions, which is the best possible outcome. I send all that to the author and they can decide how much of it they want to take on board. If the author has questions, I answer them, but I’ve done my best, I have no responsibility for what the writer chooses to do with the manuscript after that.

When editing a manuscript for Tickety Boo Press, I do have a responsibility for the end result, so there may be more than one editing pass, working with the author to find satisfactory solutions — ideally more than satisfactory to us both — to any remaining problems. Because I have a responsibility to the publisher to produce the best possible result, I’d say I am more vigorous in presenting my suggestions, and I hope more persuasive.

With the new imprint, where I will be responsible for choosing the manuscripts as well… we’ll see how that process evolves.

Richard: While this varies from client to client and even project to project, there’s a general workflow that obtains. As a freelancer, I get queries from potential or repeat clients—“Can you do a project of X number of words by Y date?”—and can usually juggle my schedule enough to fit it in somewhere (although, too often, I’m booked solid throughout the entire set of possible dates for the client; this is not said to brag but to bemoan the tragedy of being physically unable to copyedit everything!).

Once I’m able to turn to the project, I start a style sheet (contains general and work/author-specific grammatical/typographic/etc. preferences, a list of characters, places, preferred variant spellings, invented words/phrases and so on—partly as a bit of a cheat sheet for myself to confirm spellings and such while I work but also to provide the client with a definitive list of observations, as they may, when seeing a word/phrase/name out of context, decide that they want to modify it). If I know the author personally, I give them a heads-up before diving in that I may have questions/concerns to bounce off them as I work; this is a huge time-saver for both me and the author in the end, as it keeps unnecessary modifications or stets from being needed. Most authors I’ve encountered are actually quite happy about this, as a short query in a margin comment may not actually raise the question that needs to be raised, and an ongoing dialogue works around that and ends up producing a more-informed copyedit.

During the work itself, it’s fairly simple: read, verify (spellings, fact-checking, internal consistency/continuity, grammatical tendencies and the like), SAVE SAVE SAVE. Just like authors, I live in paranoid fear of a crash that eats everything I’ve done, and nobody gets paid for redoing work! This can be a low-key or terribly intensive step, depending on how familiar I already am with subject matter, terminology, etc. At any rate, once I reach the end, I double-check for certain things (belt and suspenders, thank you very much!), then finalize the style sheet and invoice, create an edit letter (occasionally, there are issues broad enough that they bear making a clear heads-up for the client) and send the whole shebang.

Juliana: What do you find are the most common misconceptions about your work?

Teresa: That my services are very, very expensive. That it matters whether my style as a writer matches theirs in any way. I’m not there to teach them to write like I do, but to write like themselves, consistently, to help them find their own voice if they haven’t already, and encourage them to write with all the power and eloquence that is already inside them. But most writers who come to me have no real expectations, they wait for me to tell them what I do and don’t do. Then they decide if that is what they want. There are a few who have had bad experiences with previous editors who charged them a great deal of money and did practically nothing. Those writers tend to be wary.

Richard: That there are rigid rules for language. Language in general is a messy thing; English takes that standard and wallows in it until utterly filthy. Then add artistic and even poetic (authors who like to appeal to spoken language in their writing make what is simultaneously the most rewarding and most frustrating kind of project!) aspects, and the rules get trampled into the mud by necessity. As a result, much of the copyediting process is a juggling act between perceived/accepted rules and the artistic intent of the author, not to mention trying to predict what the typical reader is going to extract from those. 

Juliana: What is your favorite part of the process? And, conversely, what do you find to be the most difficult aspect of the job? 

Richard: As I said above, the best part of this work is the ability to 1) read SF/F all day, 2) pick nits and 3) get paid for doing both of those! The most difficult part arises from that first point: I got into this racket precisely because I wanted to help make genre work just that little bit better, so there’s a constant level of uncertainty regarding whether I have, in fact, correctly divined the author’s intent on a multitude of items and caught all of the inevitable errors, typos, slip-ups and such. To illustrate this: I was recently praised (publicly!) by a client for catching so many of those, yet what was foremost in my mind even then was the fact that I had not caught all of them. I want to do the best job possible, so the inevitability of missing something still sticks in my craw. And it is inevitable; there is no such thing as a perfect copyediting pass. This still troubles me, probably far more than it should, but there it is.

Teresa: My favorite part is when the author takes one of my suggestions, gives it their own special spin, and comes up with something that surprises and excites us both.

The most difficult aspect is when they think the book is one quick draft away from being publishable when the fact is that they don’t even know all the writing basics yet, and I am the one who has to tell them this as tactfully as possible.

Juliana: I know you’re both actively involved in the SFF world, online (social media, internet forums) and in person (convention and event participation). Do you also read a lot? And how important is genre involvement in your line of work? 

Teresa: I read a lot. Since I am more or less housebound much of the time I have the opportunity to do a lot of reading, and I take advantage of that by devouring dozens of books a year. As for genre involvement, SFF readers, writers, editors, and publishers have always been a community, probably dating from the days when most speculative fiction was published in pulp magazines, first a tight-knit little community, but expanding with the growth of science fiction conventions, and later with the internet. But at every stage it has been a supportive community of generous individuals, happy to share their enthusiasms, their time, and their knowledge. Why wouldn’t I want to be involved? Of course there are occasionally controversies, some of them quite bitter, because people really care about the genre, it’s not just a way of making money, and feelings run high. So far I’ve avoided getting too deep into these controversies, so my experiences have almost all been good.

Richard: Paradoxically, I think I read less now than before I began this work (although that’s the difference between a category 4 hurricane and a category 5). I can copyedit roughly a novel a week, so “me-reading” is necessarily when I’m taking a break or during the evenings and weekends…but I stop the pleasure reading when there’s too much interference (too-similar subgenres, characters, plot or even authorial voice), as I don’t want to risk cross-contamination between the two. As a result, I’ve been known to suspend pleasure reading for a week or two.

As for genre involvement, those are essential to my work. On the most basic level, much of the decision-making in the aforementioned juggling act of writing vs. rules comes from decades of absorption of genre standards, the things that are so essential to genre fiction that the typical genre reader isn’t even consciously aware of them but is nonetheless expecting them. So, reading truly is fundamental…but being involved in the public side of genre is becoming just as fundamental, as it brings to light a number of those aspects. And let’s not forget the pragmatic (even mercenary) side: getting to know the players in genre means 1) I begin to have a better idea of their attitudes, their thought processes and other things that contribute to the on-site decisions made during copyedits and 2) exposure. Think about that latter: when a potential client is looking for a new copyeditor, it pays to have been visible to as many industry people as possible (“Hey, there’s this one guy who seemed not to be too stupid and wasn’t a truly intolerable twit” can get you work, folks!). Still, for me, the biggest personal payoff in being involved is that I’m as immersed as I can be in something I love and improving how well I do my work. That’s something you can’t buy.

Juliana: Following on from the last question, what advice would you give to those just starting a career in editing? 

Richard: Read! And pay attention to what you’re reading! For a copyeditor, it’s obvious that knowing the rules (in fiction publishing, The Chicago Manual of Style reigns supreme) is a (not the) sine qua non of being able to do the job, but knowing when, how and why the author can or even should bend or outright ignore those rules…well, that’s at least just as important, and possibly vastly more so.

And then get out there. Engage with people in the community: authors, naturally, but also editors, publishers, publicists, illustrators and so on. Knowing the field, as I’ve said, is potentially even more useful than knowing the rules in both the execution of your work and possibly getting more of it!

Teresa: Make sure you are prepared. If you don’t have years of critiquing in writer’s groups, haven’t attended workshops, or haven’t had any professional experience in book publishing, then the fact that you were, for instance, an English major in college counts for nothing. Your involvement in writing, one way or another, should have been intensive. And then, if you specialize in specific genres, know those genres very well.

Juliana: Which science fiction and fantasy authors – past or present – would you have loved to work with?

Teresa: With my favorite authors, all I see is the finished result, so I don’t know how much input the editor had, how that writer was to work with. But I suppose I would have loved to work with some of them just because it would have been fun to get to know them, and find out more about how their minds work, what inspires them, by what process that turns into such wonderful stories. So I would say Patricia McKillip, Tanith Lee (I did have the opportunity to do an interview with her a few years ago, and the way stories just seemed to well up out of her was fascinating. I would have liked to learn more), Robin McKinley, Tom Holt because I am intrigued by the books he writes as K. J. Parker.

Richard: Are you kidding? All of them. I’m not joking. I’m still relatively new to this field (I’ve been doing this professionally for under three years), but I’ve already been remarkably fortunate to have worked with an amazing variety of writing and writers (read: people). That aspect is so richly personally rewarding that I want MORE, and I see no reason whatsoever to be terribly picky about where that “more” comes from. I want to COPYEDIT ALL THE THINGS!

Juliana: Thank you both very much for taking part, and for giving us a fascinating peek at what goes on behind the editing curtain. 

Check out Richard Shealy’s website, http://sffcopyediting.com, where he does a much better job of explaining his line of work than I ever could. Richard is active on Twitter, both as @SheckyX and @SFFCopyediting, and you can also find him on Facebook either as shecky.exbetai or SFFCopyediting.

Look for more information on Teresa Edgerton’s work as a writer and editor at http://teresaedgertoneditor.com, as well as lots of great blog posts with writing advice. You can find Teresa on Twitter @TGoblinPrincess, and she is also a regular on the SFF Chronicles forum.

Spotlight is a monthly blog feature. Check out October’s Spotlight on Cover Art with Aty S. Behsam and Gary Compton. Next up in December: Spotlight on Mythology in Fantasy.

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Spotlight on Small Press Publishing with Gary Compton

Tickety Boo Press is on fire! Well, not literally, since that would be tragic and not something to celebrate here on the blog. Launched on 30th January 2014, the UK-based publishing house is quickly becoming a busy, busy hive of all things speculative. Do you like science fiction? Try Ralph Kern’s Endeavor. Maybe a little space opera? Have a peek at Jo Zebedee’s Abendau’s Heir. Prefer fantasy? No problem. Teresa Edgerton can tickle your taste buds with Goblin Moon and its sequel, Hobgoblin Night. How about a dash of romance, or even gaslight? Give Indigo Heartfire by Jo Marryat or Oracle by Susan Boulton a try. And if you’re looking for darkly delightful, then the Biblia Longcrofta by Simon Marshall-Jones may be your cup of tea. TBP isn’t afraid to tackle any sub-genre.

The brave and motivated guy behind Tickety Boo Press is Northumberland native and proud basset owner Gary Compton, who juggles the roles of acquiring editor and graphic designer far more skill and aplomb than I could ever dream of. And Gary, himself a speculative fiction writer, is getting ready to add author to that list of achievements. Tickety Boo is very much a family business, with Gary’s daughter Emma taking charge of author royalties and the selection of US and UK-based editors, among other tasks.

I’ve followed Tickety Boo’s journey from the very start, and have always thoroughly admired Gary’s openness in discussing his ideas and plans, his sensitivity toward his authors, and his willingness to consider suggestions and constructive criticism. So when I decided to tackle small press publishing in my Spotlight series, my thoughts naturally turned his way. With 12 published novels and anthologies in 18 months, Tickety Boo is fast becoming a force to be reckoned with.

Juliana: You’re probably tired of answering this by now, but why start your own press? What were your personal motivations?

Gary: I have always run my own businesses since 1983 and feel I am virtually unemployable in the real world. I could not just be satisfied being a kitchen fitter. I had to have my own kitchen company. Once I had that, I wasn’t satisfied just buying the cabinets, I had to make them – hence a fully operational, innovative cabinetworks where we machined the rawest of materials into beautiful bespoke cabinets. I am very much hands on, so that’s the reason I do as much as I do.

Juliana: In this world of big corporate publishing, where do you feel that small presses like Tickety Boo fit in? What is the role of the independent publisher among all the big fish?

Gary: Good question. I think publishing is changing and I think Tickety Boo has some ideas that if successful will shake it up a little. But to answer your question – quality of the words/books and sales are the only things that matter. There is no point in creating activity just to massage mine and the author’s ego. So every book is taken on with the goal of selling a lot and making the press and the author some hard-earned cash

Juliana: TBP has chosen so far to stake out a spot in a particular market niche, that of speculative fiction. Do you feel it’s important for the smaller independent publisher to specialize, or do you have plans to eventually branch out into other genres?

Gary: We will be branching out. We have an imprint planned for crime and thrillers. You heard it here first. It will be called Homicidium. That’s Latin for murder. So watch for an announcement on that. Also Romance is being discussed between the team.

Juliana: Are there rivalries among smaller independent publishers?

Gary: I haven’t come across any rivalries. Ian Whates helped me immeasurably in the early days, and Simon Marshall-Jones at Spectral and Graeme Reynolds at Horrific Tales have also helped a lot.

Juliana: And following on from the last question, how important are partnerships and networking?

Gary: Massively important! You are building a brand and you need friends and acquaintances to buy the books and hopefully share your news as well.

Juliana: Starting out from scratch must have meant a pretty steep learning curve. What do you feel have been your biggest hurdles so far?

Gary: Yes for sure. I could write a book on my mistakes. I think getting the systems in place so authors have access to their sales data and to make sure royalties are paid on time. My daughter takes care of that but I watch over it on behalf of the authors who can message me at any time with queries or requests for updates. You have to remember, I am doing a lot – covers – formatting, editing – marketing etc. It’s a lot of work so if I have forgotten to do something I prefer it if the authors give me a nudge rather than festering on my incompetence. So lots of mistakes, but Rome wasn’t built in a day.

Juliana: What are the best things about running a publishing company? The stuff that makes it all worthwhile?

Gary: My most favorite job is doing the covers. I love that. It satisfies my natural desire to be creative. I also like finding new talent.

Juliana: Would you like to tell us about some of Tickety Boo’s upcoming projects?

Gary: Well, in October we have Erebus, which is the second of the Sleeping Gods novels. Endeavour, the first, has been our most successful title in terms of revenue. Ralph is great to work with. He’s tough but honest. We also have the second book from Ian Sales: his first book, A Prospect of War, has done very well too so I am looking forward to that. Also a previously unannounced Space Opera: coming out in October/December is Uncommon Purpose by P.J. Strebor. There are ten books in this series and so far the editorial team have waxed lyrical about it. There was a virtual fight between the editors to get the job. Thankfully, it has just been edited by J. Scott-Marryat so it’s in great condition, and Teresa starts on it 1st September, so hopefully she will add value.

Juliana: Who are some of your own personal favorite authors? Not Tickety Boo authors; I’m not that cruel to make you choose among your ‘children’!!

Dan Brown is my favorite and Martina Cole not far behind.

Juliana: Thank you, Gary, for giving us a tiny peek behind the curtain. I look forward to all the new releases, and to continuing to see Tickety Boo Press grow and expand.

You can find more information on Tickety Boo Press books on their website, Ticketyboopress.co.uk, as well as submission guidelines for both novels and anthologies. Follow Tickety Boo Press on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/GSCompton) and Twitter (@GarySCompton) for launch and submission updates and sales promotions.

oracle hob nightgoblin malevolence ralphbiblia

Spotlight is a monthly blog feature. Check out July’s Spotlight on Writing Local Flavor with Jo Zebedee and Anna Dickinson. Next up in September: Spotlight on Imagining the Future.

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Spotlight on Writing Local Flavor with Jo Zebedee and Anna Dickinson

Let’s just say, for the sake of argument, that you’re sitting there with your laptop, or notebook and pencil, brainstorming ideas for your next novel or short story. Perhaps you’ve already got a rough idea of the characters, or the plot. But now you have to decide where your story takes place.

Maybe creating fantasy worlds or off-planet skyscapes is not for you. And you really like the idea of basing your story in your own small corner of the real world. How great would it be to include the pub down the road, or that funny-shaped hill in the neighboring state park? But how far can you go with your local descriptions and dialogue before you cross a line between authenticity and pure cheese? (Unless you’re purposefully writing cheese, which is awesome and I say: go for it!)

I’ve invited two talented writers to help me figure this out. From Ireland we have Jo Zebedee, author of the dark space opera Abendau’s Heir, first in the Inheritance Trilogy (Tickety Boo Press). Jo has a soon-to-be-released science fiction novel set in her local stomping ground, Belfast. Inish Carraig is a grim, futuristic thriller lightened by that dash of Northern Irish humor. “In post-alien invasion Belfast, humanity has been defeated. Pity no one told the locals.”

Anna Dickinson lives in Scotland, which trickles its way into most of her work. She is represented by Gina Panettieri of Talcott Notch Literary, and writes fast-paced and hauntingly beautiful fantasy YA about witches, and cursed princes, and things that don’t go bump in the night because they’re too busy creeping silently across your bedroom floor, licking their pointy teeth.

Juliana: What are the advantages to working around real-life settings, whether they’re actual places like Belfast, or fictitious places based on existing locations? 

Jo: I think there are a couple of advantages – the topography is already in place and it’s easy for people to visualise the scene. Also, if you’re comfortable with the environment and lay out, that translates to a certain amount of confidence in the writing.

From a sensory angle, you know how the place feels. You know the sounds, the smells, the rituals. That makes it easier to translate and add some richness to the scene.

Lastly, the world is already built. There’s no need to plan out all sorts of political systems and make up whole cultures. That makes storytelling somewhat more straightforward.

Anna: For me, the main advantage is that you have a whole place laid out for you, with as much reality as you choose to include — that funny-shaped hill, and ice cream stall at the bottom and the factory chimneys in the background. Real life is usually mixed up and not wholly one thing or the other (or it is where I come from), and I like that contradiction.

A secondary advantage is that you borrow the rules of the place you’re writing about. If I write a story about a fifteen year old based in Glasgow, I already have lots of constraints set up for her life: she needs to go to school, she needs to have a guardian or parent (or, if not, to hide from the authorities), she needs money for food/ clothes. All the familiar things we already know about, or, if these rules don’t work any more, it’s potentially more shocking against the backdrop of somewhere real and familiar.

Another advantage, of course, is that the lazy among us can visualise things very easily without needing to make them up, and, best of all, can draw on existing legends, history and rumours, and mix them with our own. It’s a bit like telling a lie — good lies contain some of the truth (though I love stories that are based in completely fantastic places, I don’t have the concentration span necessary to develop a whole world and its geography. If I tried to build a world, I’m afraid I’d end up with rivers flowing uphill and cacti growing in the marshes).

Juliana: How about the limitations?

Jo: The topography already being in place. In my made up world, Abendau, if I need a mountain, I can stick it in. Sadly, if you’re remaining true to a real place, you can’t add features willy-nilly. And there’ll always be someone who catches you out if you do.

Also, point of view discipline. I write very close to my characters and they don’t walk past familiar features and stop to describe them to themselves. So finding a way to fit features you need the reader to recognise into the story, whilst not awkwardly shoving it in, can be challenging.

Also, in choosing somewhere like Belfast, with so much challenging history and differing views, there’s a sense of knowing you can’t please anyone.

One intention, when I wrote Inish Carraig, was to write a book about Belfast not about the Troubles or religion. To have it as just another great setting for a rip-roaring story. However, if someone chooses to read hidden meanings into the story – and it’s rare for a book based in Belfast not to be seen as making some kind of analogy – it will change the meaning of the book significantly. I have no control over that, and I am aware it may be reflected in some reviews.

Added to that, my pov character is a young lad scavenging after an alien invasion. The people he’s had to turn to for help hold strong political opinions, some of which he will have heard and, in a vacuum, absorbed. That needs to be reflected, even if they’re not my views. It will be difficult if people attribute those character opinions as my own.

Anna: I’m not especially worried by strict accuracy (mostly! See below for ranting) — if you want an extra street or hill or underground train station, go for it. Personally, I think the main limitation of using real places is the risk of overdoing it and coming over like a tour guide.

Of course, it’s very tempting: if you’ve researched somewhere thoroughly you want to put in lots of information, but sometimes it distracts from the story.

If your characters are pelting down a street, trying desperately to escape from a tentacle-flailing monster straight from the bowels of Hell, I don’t care what the street is called. I care that it’s long and straight and there’s no way to turn off it, for example. But I think this is a personal thing. I’m hopeless at remembering street names and locations — I can get lost anywhere (it’s my superpower) — so my intolerance for detail is probably a reflection of what interests me.

Books that are love songs to particular places rarely appeal to me. I remember skipping the first third of The Return of the Native because it was all a description of Egdon Heath. I got a bit sick of heathery romantic moorland in the work of the Brontes as well.

Juliana: How far is too far? How do you avoid falling into clichés and still give your work that authentic local feel?

Jo: It is a balancing act. There are certain things about Belfast people associate with it that are cliches – bonfires, and marches, flags, riots and petrol bombs. But those things do still happen. Cliches come from somewhere, even if we preferred they didn’t. So, it’s showing those things and trying to enact how they really feel, as opposed to some sort of distant pastiche.

I think the other thing that is a fine line is how far you go with dialect: ‘Ach, ye oul eejit, yer head’s a balloon’ doesn’t translate well, and gets wearisome. But if you keep key words like eejit and wee (I really do use it all the time) and make the rest comprehensible, it’s generally okay.

Anna: This is a really personal one and I think judging it probably comes down to the individual reader. As soon as a character says “Och” (or “Hoots!”), I put the book down, but I don’t think that’s a typical response.

However, since we can’t write for each person individually, maybe an authentic local feel is about avoiding the obvious things, and instead using flavour, not detail. You have to see your location through your story and your own eyes. It’s something Iain Banks (writing without the M) did brilliantly — he took familiar places or landmarks like the Forth Road Bridge, and turned them into something strange and new.

Picking too many of the big touristy bits, or the things everyone else thinks of, can make your story feel like a postcard. I think that’s when you risk cliché.

Juliana: Leading on from the previous question, what are, in your opinion, the most common mistakes writers make when dealing with real-life settings?

Jo: Either going into so much detail it reads like a travelogue, or so little you wonder why the writer even decided to use a specific setting at all. A sense of place is what I aim for, not a slavish description of everything and anything.

Anna: This is where I contradict myself. Shameless, I know. I think if you’re going to use a real location, it’s important to get it right (or, at least know when you’re taking liberties with reality). Recently, I’ve had an obsession with Regency Romance but I don’t know enough about the Regency to worry if someone gets their research wrong, so it doesn’t worry me. However, a few of the stories I read were based in Scotland. The errors in some of those make me wince. A random selection:

  • Clotted cream cannot be poured. It’s solid (one might even say, “clotted”).
  • Peat is cut to be burned, but you don’t send someone out to “cut some peat for the fire”. It’s stacked and dried before you can burn it.
  • Nowhere in the history of Scotland, ever ever, has a man been called “Tammy”. Yes, there are Robbies and Jamies and Charlies, but Tam is just Tam.

These are little things, and in most cases I managed to read the book anyway, but once I’d encountered an error like that, I knew I couldn’t trust the author to know what she was writing about. It made me feel like the Scottish Highlands were being used as a pretty backdrop by someone who saw them as, well, a pretty backdrop.

Juliana: Are there any writers who you consider do ‘local flavor’ particularly well? Who would you recommend as prime reading material?

Jo: Colin Bateman is excellent. Anyone who uses the immortal line of ‘up your hole with a big jam roll’ knows the Northern Irish. Also, there are a raft of detective writers coming through specialising in Belfast Noir – Adrian McKinty and Steve Cavanagh are two good examples.

Anna: I mentioned Iain Banks above; he did Scotland brilliantly.

In general, I prefer reading about places I don’t know very well. I love William Faulkner’s writing about the American South — especially Absalom Absalom! — and of course Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, which has also got that hot and dusty thing going on.

I liked Sarah Rees Brennan’s portrayal of London in the Demon’s Lexicon trilogy — it made the stories feel situated in reality, but with a light touch so the emphasis was on the characters and the story, not the place. The same is true of Holly Black’s Valiant, which is set in New York but doesn’t feel like a guide book.

For me, the ultimate example is Susan Cooper. Her Dark is Rising series — written after she’d left the UK for the US — was a love song to the south of England and to Wales, but not in a way that got between the reader and the story.

Juliana: Moving off topic, could you share some of your own favorite authors?

Jo: Lois McMaster Bujold – I love Miles Vorkosigan. Neil Gaiman. Carlos Ruiz Zafon, I like a lot. Also, some of the classics – Heinlein, Clarke. Marian Keyes. I read widely, across many genres, and I think that’s a good thing, mostly.

Anna: One of my favourite authors is Diana Wynne Jones and one of my favourite books by her is Fire and Hemlock, which is a brilliant re-telling of one of the Scottish Border Ballads, Tam Lin, about a girl who falls in love with a man who has been captured by the Queen of Elfland (although my absolute favourite of hers is Hexwood, which is wholly original and fabulous).

I’m sure I’m forgetting hundreds of authors I ought to mention but, apart from those I talked about above, I’ve always loved Patricia Mckillip and Robin Mckinley. Recently, I’ve really enjoyed work by Melina Marchetta (her Lumatere Chronicles series, specifically. Froi has to be one of the best characters ever written), Cinda Williams Chima (the sexiest, most intense character interactions I’ve read for years), and Sara Raasch (her world, and the reversal of conventions of heat and cold, is wonderful).

Juliana: Thank you Jo and Anna for being such great guests and sharing such excellent pointers. Anna, I promise not to go pouring any clotted cream over my keyboard!

Jo’s newest novel, Belfast-based Inish Carraig, will be out August 21st; keep an eye on her Facebook page and website (jozebedee.com) for updates on the launch, or follow her tweets at @joz1812. If you’d like a sneak peek, there’s a sample up on her blog, jozebwrites.blogspot.co.uk. Those of you in Northern Ireland can catch Jo at TitanCon in September, where she’ll be making a guest appearance.

Anna has published short stories in On the Premises and the anthology Fat Girl in a Strange Land (Crossed Genres Publications). In her own words, she reads voraciously and randomly generates opinions based on whatever she read last. She confesses her hapless parenting decisions, ranks romantic heroes from most to least evil, and records recipes for toasted puffin at annawrites.net.

Spotlight is a monthly blog feature. Check out June’s Spotlight on Speculative Romance with Emma Jane and Jo Marryat. Next up in August: Spotlight on Small Press Publishing.