Giving The Game Away | Songs Of Cats and Croats

Hey, remember a couple of weeks ago, we had a grand old giveaway?

Well, I'd meant to announce the winner sooner -- in fact I did the random draw last weekend, then I saw three more entries flashing away in my inbox, and it felt a little mean of me to cut the cord so arbitrarily. But they've been trickling in since, too - a couple a day all through the week - and this can't go on forever. So.


The time has finally come to announce our winners.

First, our three runners-up, each of whom will receive a gorgeous Songs of the Earth bookmark just as soon as I can talk the post office camels to heading out your way. They are:

• from Ohio, Andy Campbell
• from Manchester, Daniel Franklin
• from Croatia, Tomislav Tkalec

But our grand prizewinner, who gets a bookmark AND a signed and inscribed copy of Songs of the Earth direct from Elspeth herself, is...


*dramatic pause*


Simon Holland, who hails from Cheshire, where all cats are happy. As well Simon should be. :D


I'll have email to all our winners in a moment to collect address and inscriptions. Well done, everyone!

Giving The Game Away | Songs, Signed and Inscribed

So.

I expect I've crowed about Songs of the Earth enough for one week - I really would recommend you all give it a shot, when the time comes - but I've one last thing to share with you all before we call it a day.

Thanks to the lovely lady herself - and she has been most lovely, to put up with my many, lengthy questions and then to throw this thing into the bargain - I have one hardcover copy of Songs of the Earth to give away to any and all comers, and exclusive bookmarks to tide over three runners-up.

Not just any old hardcover copy, either. This one will be signed by Elspeth - and personalised, too! All you have to do to stand a chance of winning this pretty thing is email me the answer to the following question:

What is the name of the trilogy

Songs of the Earth begins?

The answer to which really very easy question you'll find in my review of Elspeth Cooper's very promising debut.

Rest assured, wherever in the world you are, you can enter this competition. Just send along your entries to "thespeculativescotsman [at] googlemail [dot] com" - taking care to mark your subject headers "Songs Giveaway" - and I'll let you know who the lucky winner of the bookmarks and this precious signed and personalised first edition of what could very well prove to be the best fantasy debut of 2011... shall we say early next week?

I expect we shall.

Ready? Set? Go!

The Speculative Spotlight | A Word With Elspeth Cooper (Part 2)

Day before yesterday, I sat down (in spirit) for a tête à tête with the lovely Elspeth Cooper, author of the novel that's been called "the best fantasy debut of 2011." You can catch up on the first half of our discussion here, and while you're at it, if you haven't already, I just posted my review of Elspeth's novel. That's here - or of course you could just look down a couple of inches.

Go on, now. Due diligence and all that.

So we're all on the same page, right? Songs of the Earth is a fantasy "as fresh as flour from the mill, and as rich in power, and possibility," meanwhile Ms. Cooper "gives every indication of being a speculative star on a vertical trajectory, worthy of mention in the same breath as the likes of Brandon Sanderson and - yes! - Patrick Rothfuss."


When her first novel comes out two weeks from today, you should totally read it. :)

Anyway, last time on The Speculative Spotlight, after a good bit of bantering about social media, great expectations and the journey from keyboard to bookshelves, Elspeth and I had finally touched on the reason for the season: the release, a few short days from now, of Songs of the Earth. And we're going to pick up the conversation right where we left off...

***

How have you found the ramp-up towards D-day, Elspeth? In terms of marketing, I mean, and getting the good word out there; particularly in terms of what seems now an entry requirement for debut authors such as yourself, which is to say socialising with your core audience, whether by blogging, Tweeting, or poking people on... what is it? Facespace? 

Did the community welcome you with open arms, then, or more of a we’ll-wait-and-see attitude? Have we become half as insular and impenetrable to outsiders and newcomers as I often fear? 

And in the end, do you think it matters a whit? Do you expect this extra burden you and every other new writer to have come along in the last few years have been made to take on will translate into sales success... or are you after something else, perhaps? 

Anyone who's been part of the unpublished writers' community is aware of this notion that we all have to "build a platform" for ourselves, or we won't be taken seriously by the industry. From what I've seen, this idea is hammered home particularly hard in the US - certainly I saw it most on American agents' blogs and on American writers' sites. Here in the UK, the industry seems to be far less concerned about a new author coming to them with a ready-made audience of 3,000 blog followers and a 4-page marketing plan, and more interested in whether they can actually write a decent story... but anyway.

To me, it seemed like common sense to have a web presence. I'd had a personal site for years, so once my editor and I had settled on my pen name (my real name doesn't balance nearly so well on a cover) I registered www.elspethcooper.com, ported my blog over and built a site to get the Google machine grinding. Then I added an Elspeth Cooper page to my Facebook profile, and joined Twitter. I'm a natural chatterbox so communicating comes easily to me and I enjoy it - it just takes up so much bloody time! There's a load of fantasy fiction forums I'd like to browse and get involved with because I'm a reader as well as a writer, and I'd like to blog more frequently, but there's only so many hours in the day, so I have to ration myself. Twitter in particular can be a dreadful time-suck, and I have books to deliver.

In terms of how the fantasy community's welcomed me, so far it's been pleasantly warm, with enthusiastic spells and scattered showers of scepticism. From the chatter on some of the forums there appears to be a hard core of readers who are deeply suspicious of hype, and very difficult to impress. To be fair to them, the last few years have seen some truly outstanding debuts, so when another best-thing-since-sliced-bread comes along even the most dedicated reader can be forgiven for feeling a little jaded. Maybe I'll win them over, or maybe my book's just not their cup of tea. Although they won't know until they try!

Of course, the publicity machine has only just started rolling. It takes a while to mash through the gears and build up some momentum, get beyond the book bloggers and the web forums to the folks out there in reader-land. I'm trying to do my bit on the social media side, more just to keep my name out there in the collective consciousness than relentlessly plugging, which I find a bit distasteful to be honest. Whether it will result in sales, I don't know. I don't want to be perceived as some remote entity that spits out a book every year or two; I'd rather be seen as a human being: an approachable, enthusiastic, occasionally funny writer person, someone you can actually talk to. Maybe engaging with people on that level will make them more inclined to try one of my books. That'd be a win all round. 

Here’s to a resounding victory along exactly those lines!

But speaking of spitting out a book a year, on the last page of SONGS OF THE EARTH – the ARC, again – there is the promise that Gair’s story will continue in TRINITY MOON, which is to say book two of THE WILD HUNT. 

So how goes the grander narrative? How far ahead of us are you, exactly? And I suppose I should ask, because it really seems to matter to some folks, do you expect to be publishing on an annual schedule? In fact, let’s make a meaningful question of that last and append the following: do you feel any pressure to deliver on such a timetable? 

Well, I was supposed to deliver TRINITY MOON in the autumn of 2010, but a run of illness and hospital admissions (culminating in surgery in October) delayed things a bit, and the manuscript I turned in was complete but not to my satisfaction. It's currently undergoing revisions, which obviously are impacting on book three. Publication of TRINITY is slated for next spring, and I'm confident we'll still hit that. I don't have a date for the final volume yet.

Pressure? Well, I'm on the company dime, as it were, but by far the greatest pressure I'm feeling is what I'm applying to myself. I certainly don't feel as if Gollancz are leaning on me at all. They are happy to give me some room to breathe. Of course, if the books take off and I have fans congregating under my office window day and night chanting "Why are we waiting?" that might change... 

Well thank you for being so frank with me, Elspeth. I think you’ve good and sold us on yourself. But let’s change gears a little, and talk about why we’re talking in the first place: the book. For anyone who’s still sitting on the fence as regards SONGS OF THE EARTH, could you paint a pretty picture? 

Oh God, I'm hopeless at summing up my books in one or two sentences!

It's about a young man called Gair who has an unusual gift: he can hear music in the world around him, and work magic with it. Sometimes. He doesn't know how to control it, and the only people who could teach him have been persecuted almost to extinction by the Church - who've put a price on Gair's head as well. So he's on the run, trying to get to grips with his abilities and stay one step ahead of the witchfinder on his tail, and just when he thinks he's found a measure of safety, he discovers he's in the middle of a much bigger battle, with much higher stakes. Then he has to decide whether he's going to keep running, or stand and fight.

There's a few big-ticket items like the difference between religion and faith, the many shapes of courage and why crusades of any sort are rarely a good idea, but mostly it's an adventure. Contains 100% of your guideline daily amount of magic, intrigue, a bit of romance, a smattering of self-discovery/coming-of-age, trace nudity, perilous things-from-the-Other-Side, and swords. Everything a growing boy (or girl) needs.

So what set off the voices in your head anyway? The magic - for it's a lovely thing, the Song is - or the magician? In other words, what came first for you, in conceiving The Wild Hunt: the chicken, or the egg? :) 

Have you ever sat in the garden on a still summer morning, dew on the grass and the sun only just up, and you could have sworn you could hear the plants growing? Or stood in a deep forest and felt sure that right at the limit of your perception, you could hear the trees breathe? No? Oh. Must just be me, then. I've been doing it for years. This could explain a lot.

Anyway, that's where the Song came from. As for the singer, he came later. The voices have always been there - I was never lonely as a child ;o) - but what triggered this particular book was rage. Incandescent, boiling-up-in-your-chest fury, the kind that you have to express somehow or you'll explode. The kind that makes you worry that if you do let it off its leash, you might do something worse than just smash up the crockery.

That gave me Gair, wrestling with his magic alone in the dark in the opening scene of the book. As for what made me connect that vague, nebulous concept for the Song with the magic he was fighting, I really have no clue at all. I often do things instinctively when I'm on a creative roll that if I sat down and tried to reason it out, would never occur to me. 

This rage, motivated I assume by the nasty break-up you mentioned before... do you still have it? Or is that a demon the process of writing Gair helped you exorcise? Because as of the end of SONGS OF THE EARTH, and not to give anything away, I... I get the sense that your man’s got a whole lot of rage ahead of him. 

Correct, it was. I channelled those negative emotions into writing - partly as therapy, partly as a safety valve: I couldn't sleep, so I wrote through the night for a week - and then the story itself took hold of me. I put the rage away a long time ago, and locked the door, but let's just say I know where the key is...

Without offering any spoilers, I can confirm that Gair's about to find himself sorely tested, torn between his personal desires and the greater good, and facing some hard, hard choices. 

Now a moment ago you wrote that you often do things instinctively when you're on a creative roll. I'd be very interested to hear of those turns SONGS OF THE EARTH took during the writing process that most surprised you. 

Tanith's conversation with her father. That scene came straight out of my subconscious and practically wrote itself, solving about three different problems at once. Gair's recurring nightmare is another one. I wrote that and it was only when I went back to edit it that I realised it is rich with symbolism and foreshadowing. I looked at it and thought "I don't remember being aware of any of that, but it bloody works..." 

How much of what did happen - as opposed to what you'd imagined would - went according to plan? 

You said the P-word - wash your mouth out, young man!

I'm not a big planner. I don't write character profiles, or cover a pin-board with chapter summaries on index cards - I've tried, and I write more fluidly without it. SONGS was seat of the pants, all the way, though I had the luxury of time to pull it together and prune it into shape.

I've had to be much more disciplined with TRINITY MOON. For that I actually had a synopsis to work to; my agent asked for one when he was selling SONGS, so having laid the groundwork in the first book it was just a case of decanting my brain onto paper from the end of Act I through to the natural conclusion of Act II. Now that has gone to plan - bar one thing - although there's a fair bit of meat in it which was never described in the synopsis, that just evolved on its own out of the characters and the situation I'd put them in. My instincts were more on target in the second book - I'd had more practice by then, I suppose, or else I just trusted them more. 

“Decanting my brain onto paper” - what a wonderfully disturbing picture. I like it! :) 

With that in mind, can you see yourself decanting anything else in the foreseeable, Elspeth, other than THE WILD HUNT? A couple short stories, perhaps; or even - God above! - a standalone novel? What other voices might you be tamping back, the better to tell Gair’s tale? 

I've never mastered short-form fiction - and never been particularly interested in it, to be honest. Those two facts are probably related. I'm most comfortable with novels, where I've got room to flail around a bit - I guess you could call me a literary claustrophobic!

So my next project will be a standalone novel, I think, but set in the same universe. I fell utterly in love with the White Havens: the high society of the Kingswater with its grand salons and glittering parties, and the grimy underbelly of Haven-port. The city was almost a character in its own right - part New Orleans, part Regency London, part Venice at the time of the Borgias - and I desperately want to explore it further.

There's also an annoying young lad wandering around my brain who I might have to do something about. All he's got is a name and a grin that's either going to get him into trouble or get him out of it, but he's in no hurry to leave, the little git. 

Is it a frustration at all, that now you’ve started down this road you can’t very well take the time to enjoy the sights? By which I mean to say, is beginning a fantasy saga as you have done not something of a deal with the devil, in that you’re practically obliged to see it through before you can devote your attentions elsewhere? 

Sometimes it's frustrating, yes. With SONGS I had no deadlines, and I could dawdle, pick daisies and chase butterflies as much as I wanted. Now there's a timetable, and other people counting on me to finish this thing. I always knew I would finish it, publication or no publication, but now I'm expected to do so, and in a reasonable time, so there is a little voice in the back of my head now telling me chop-chop, you haven't got all day you know.

The corollary to this is that there is so much... *searches for the words*... stuff in my head to do with THE WILD HUNT that I worry I'll lose something if I allow my focus to shift too far away from it before it's done. There again I've been living with these ideas for so long that I probably couldn't lose anything even if I tried, but still. I'm a bit of a worrit. 

Can you see yourself writing outside the genre, going forward? Or do you feel you’ve found your place in fantasy? 

Fantasy's always been my first love, but I confess, I've not been entirely faithful to it. I have ideas on the back burner for some what do they call it, contemporary women's fiction, which if they ever come to fruition will no doubt appear under yet another pen-name, but despite the occasional flirtation I think that I'll always keep coming back to fantasy. It feels like coming home. 

And home is where the heart is. I couldn’t have asked for a nicer note to wrap things up on than that. 

But I’m all about outstaying my welcome, so: one last quick hit before I let you get back to the writing cave. It’s practically a tradition, this question. To wit, if Songs of the Earth were edible, what kind of food would it be? 

Ooh, now that's a poser. I've been told that SONGS is more like an adventure than fantasy, and even non-fantasy-readers have enjoyed it. So it tastes like... something that's more delicious than it sounds, but is so enjoyable that you keep going back for just one more piece... Montezuma dark chocolate with chilli in it.

With which, I’d like to say thank you, Elspeth, for taking the time, and sharing so many of your words with me. They’re your stock-in-trade now, and I really appreciate you being so free with them. 

Needless to say, it’s been an absolute pleasure chatting with you. We should do this again sometime! But for the very moment, let me wish you all the best with the launch of SONGS OF THE EARTH in June. Here’s hoping the stars align come the day. 

The pleasure has been all mine, Niall. Thank you for letting me clutter the place up for a bit.

***

And that's a wrap! It's been fun though, hasn't it?

Now, go pre-order Elspeth's book, follow her on Twitter, and bookmark her blog.

And stay tuned to hear how you could win a signed and personalised hardcover copy of Songs of the Earth, direct from the lovely lady herself!

Book Review | Songs of the Earth by Elspeth Cooper

Buy this book from

Amazon.co.uk / The Book Depository

Gair is under a death sentence.


He can hear music - music with power - and in the Holy City that means only one thing: he's a witch, and he's going to be burnt at the stake. Even if he could escape, the Church Knights and their witchfinder would be hot on his heels while his burgeoning power threatens to tear him apart from within.


There is no hope... none, but a secretive order, themselves persecuted almost to destruction. If Gair can escape, if he can master his own growing, dangerous abilities, if he can find the Guardians of the Veil, then maybe he will be safe.


Or maybe he'll discover that his fight has only just begun...


Songs of the Earth is the most compelling debut fantasy novel since Patrick Rothfuss first hit the shelves four years ago, with the stunning The Name of the Wind. Combining superb characterisation with an epic story, it is beautifully told and engaging from the very first word.

***

"This is the fantasy debut of 2011," proclaims the cover of the ARC of Songs of the Earth.

Big words for such a little book!

Which isn't to intimate that Songs of the Earth is at all short. I mean, perhaps by fantasy standards, where the industry norm of a hundred thousand words might just get you through the first quarter of one the doorstoppers we champion as if size actually matters... but by any other measure, Elspeth Cooper's debut is in quantative terms more than adequate.

And as to its quality?

Well. There's a lot about Songs of the Earth you'll find familiar if you've kept up with the genre since The Name of the Wind redefined success and our expectations thereof in 2007. Fantasy tropes old and new proliferate, in fact, from the very first: "The magic was breaking free again," the telling of this tale begins. "Its music sang along Gair's nerves as if they were harp-strings, a promise of power thrumming through his fingers. All he had to do was embrace it, if he dared." (p.5)

Of course Gair has dared already, and where has it gotten him? For conjuring up a light to read by, his adoptive family disabused themselves of the boy entirely, delivering him misbegotten into the arms of the Church to be raised a Knight, pure and chaste and true; except that now, years later, the Church in turn has caught Gair displaying his sacrilegious talents. For his troubles, he's to be burned to death on a witch pyre.


Cooper picks up the tale just as Gair is granted a last-minute reprieve from his trial by fire, and approached, as if by magic, by the man Alderan: a mysterious old so-and-so with "more layers [than] on an onion" (p.68) and - hark! - some understanding of the Song, which is to say the omniscient source of Gair's abilities. And Alderan has an offer for Gair. He invites the outcast to accompany him on his travels; to learn more of the Song as they go, and perhaps to meet others like him on the long road home.


Needless to say, Gair dares. Songs of the Earth chronicles the first leg of his journey, and for all its familiarity, all its modesty, it has the makings of a very fine tale indeed. Moreover, on the strength of this one novel, Elspeth Cooper gives every indication of being a speculative star on a vertical trajectory, worthy of mention in the same breath as the likes of Brandon Sanderson and - yes! - Patrick Rothfuss.


As in the debuts of both the heavyweights aforementioned - indeed, as continued the case in the most recent efforts of each - book one of The Wild Hunt has its issues. It's not wall to wall awesome; not quite. First and foremost, Gair seems all things to all people. It's one thing to be adaptable, another entirely to slip from skin to skin and find every which one fits like a favourite slipper. And so, Gair's early successes feel a little on the light side, for how can we be excited by his rise when we have not seem him fail? Subject to something of a dressing down as the day wears on, his struggles thereafter have all the more weight for that fact, his sufferance all the more meaning.


However, Cooper is a canny enough author that she sidesteps a swathe of the pitfalls which plague even veteran fantasists. When the chosen one of Songs of the Earth goes to school, for instance, as chosen ones are wont to do, rather than allowing one's interest to waiver, Cooper smartly redirects our attentions towards goings-on far from home, introducing new characters, perspectives and conflicts quite apart from Gair's continuing education - each of which I found more fascinating than the last, as my stake in affairs  sketched an exponential curve.


So too does Songs of the Earth standalone as a satisfying narrative unto itself. Grave questions remain unanswered at its conclusion, needless to say, yet herein Cooper offers complete character arcs - till death do the reader and the written part in several shocking instances - and enough in the way of closure with regards to those characters set to return in the sequel, Trinity Moon, to satisfy all but the most pedantic. Sure enough, "There will be a reckoning, I have no doubt of it, but today we've got other things to do," (p.410) asserts a certain individual as Songs of the Earth bears down on its fantastic - in either sense - climax. For myself, I can hardly wait.


As our beloved genre grows ever older, there is an increasingly prevalent notion that every new novel needs bring something entirely its own to the table. That every debut must break new ground in terms of its setting, or its magic system, or its cast of characters, or else be ignored, or damned with faint praise, as with some of the early word on Songs of the Earth. This, I fear, is an idea destined to be disappointed. The more stories there are, after all, the less remain to be told. To think an infinite number of narratives exist out there is to set oneself up for failure, surely. Though I shudder to use the word, what originality we can reasonably expect from fantasy fiction, or fiction in any other genre, we will find in the telling, and not the told. And in that regard, as in myriad others, Songs of the Earth is as fresh as flour from the mill, and as rich in power, and possibility.


It's too soon to call Songs of the Earth the fantasy debut of 2011, of course, but be sure, come the appropriate time to make such judgements, it will stand a very viable candidate.

***

Songs of the Earth
by Elspeth Cooper

UK Publication: June 2011, Gollancz


Buy this book from

Amazon.co.uk / The Book Depository

Recommended and Related Reading

The Speculative Spotlight | A Word With Elspeth Cooper (Part 1)

It's been an almighty while since we did one of these, hasn't it?

Well, in my absence, I figured all the other bloggers kinda had it covered. But upon reading Songs of the Earth a couple of months ago - my full review of which will be going live, at long last, sometime tomorrow - there were questions I don't mind saying I wanted answers to; questions only Elspeth Cooper could answer. Questions which, furthermore, I wasn't sure anyone else would ask, if I didn't step up to the plate.

So I did! :)

We talked for a good long while, Elspeth and I. She's really a lovely lady - not to mention a tremendously promising new genre novelist. She has cats, and a Kindle, realistic expectations, and a refreshingly frank and frankly refreshing perspective on the business of publishing. This from a woman whose fantasy debut has been likened to The Name of the Wind - and not just by optimistic marketing muchacos.

But let's get the ball rolling in earnest. In this first half of our chat, Elspeth and I get right into it, discussing the role of social media as it pertains to the industry today, particularly to the new novelist. Thereafter, there's talk of e-reading, book hoarding, and neither last nor least, the sort of great expectations Songs of the Earth has been burdened with.

Or is burdened the right word? Are unbidden comparisons to some of the greatest success stories of recent literary history a blessing, or a curse?

Let's find out!

***

Hello there, Elspeth. 

Hello Niall! Thanks for taking the time to interview me. There's a long-time-listener, first-time-caller joke to be done here; I've had you on my blogroll for yonks. 

Why that’s very kind of you, Elspeth. And on the ol’ Twitter, too! Why earlier today you were telling me you’d downloaded a sample chapter of FAITHFUL PLACE to your Kindle on the back of a certain someone’s recommendation. To wit, I wish you good reading. 

But there we are already. My oh my, things have changed a great deal of late, haven’t they? With blogs reaching farther and wider than ever, myriad social media bolstering authors new and old... don’t even get me started on the awesomesauce of e-reading. 

So how is it, coming into the industry at a time like this, with everything in flux? Exciting, or terrifying? 

Coming into this industry at any time is exciting and terrifying, period. Only the ratio between the two varies.

The internet has made everything so much more immediate, and with social media like Facebook or Twitter we can reach literally thousands of people we'd never otherwise know. This can be fantastic if you catch the mood of the moment with an interesting or provocative post: viral marketing campaigns have been very successful, because there's always someone awake and at the keyboard/Blackberry/iPhone, somewhere in the world. But it also lets you make a fool of yourself on a global stage, and when that goes viral, oh boy. Because not only does the internet never sleep, it never forgets. Once upon a time, a bad book review in the press on Friday was wrapped round Saturday night's fish supper, and then landfill by Monday. Not any more.

To me as a newbie, the whole e-book thing is quite daunting. There's so much going on: piracy on the rise; agents getting bullish about royalty rates; customers complaining that the price is too high and accusing publishers of using "agency pricing" as a way to bolster sales of dead-tree-books; you can't open a newspaper (do people still do that?) or click on a news site without seeing another story about someone selling 100,000+ copies of their novel on Kindle and flicking the vees at traditional publishers... Scary scary stuff.

Fright-o-meter: E---------|-T

But the flipside of all this is the tremendous opportunity this state of flux presents. Someone once said that an obstacle is just an opportunity in a dirty mac (I paraphrase). Take Kindle as an example: you can download a free sample of a book you're thinking about buying, like I just did with that Tana French. How cool is that? Once upon a time I would have had to get dressed, go into town and loiter furtively in Waterstones to read a few pages and get hooked. Now I can browse from a deckchair in the garden. I don't even have to change out of my jammies! It's effortless. And the easier it is, the more likely a sale will occur; it's just a couple of clicks.

Fright-o-meter: E-|---------T 

It’s never been easier to be a reader, agreed, nor more exciting. There’s a lot to celebrate, a lot to be grateful for. But to be an author and stand to make something of a living from your efforts... has it ever been harder, I wonder? For even as social media and e-publishing and so on appears to narrow it, I fear the gulf between us widens with every year. With more choice, an upswing in cynicism, ever more competition, and demand after demand on your time in the hope you might make a mark in some imagined mindshare; these are terrifying times, too. 

And into this climate, enter Elspeth Cooper. 

Why don’t you tell us a little about yourself, Elspeth? 

I was born in Newcastle upon Tyne in 1968. I grew up something of a solitary soul, completely happy in my own company, or with my nose in a book. My parents encouraged me to read, and I quickly developed a voracious appetite for stories and storytelling - even in primary school, my "What I Did on My Holidays" essays were six or seven times the length of anyone else's. Looking back, of course, this should have been A Clue.

Although I excelled academically, I chose not to go to university. I did my A-Levels right in the middle of the teachers' strike, and I was frustrated and bored with formal education, so I eschewed the college scarf and Lennon specs in favour of a job with a local software house, which somehow became a 20 year career in IT. I'm not quite sure how that happened.

I've always had a creative streak. Gardening, cooking, carpentry, cross-stitch - anything that lets me make stuff or grow stuff. But what I really wanted to do was create stories. I never imagined that I'd ever be published - quite frankly, I didn't think I was good enough - but there was a flame burning way down inside that never went out. And I fed it words. Every book I could get my hands on, and long hours of my spare time, scribbling and scribbling, falling further in thrall to What Happens Next.

A couple of years ago, my worsening health meant I could no longer sustain a job with a long commute, and I escaped the world of IT to become a full-time writer. I live in Northumberland with my husband, two cats, and every book I've ever bought. 

You’ve not gotten to the point yet where you have to start parting ways with old favourites, then, or else buying houses with room enough for all your beauties? Elspeth, I envy you already! 

Anyone who attempts to part me from any of my books, even the ones I didn't enjoy very much, is likely to get hurt. We're fast approaching breaking point, though. The shelves are full, and there's little room to put up more. Much as I hate the idea, I may have to start thinning the herd... 

So we come to that eternal question, the thrall you spoke of a moment ago: what happened next? How did you go from devout scribbler to published author? 

My route to publication wasn't one of endless rejection, heartache and strong liquor. It was more a case of chronic self-doubt, editing 'til your eyes bleed, and sheer good fortune.

I'd been kicking around some ideas for a story since about 1992 or 1993 - I'd go and check but the files are all on 3.5" disks and not one of the numerous computers in this house has a floppy drive - but I hadn't really got far beyond some names and places and the odd disconnected scene. I hadn't even admitted to myself that I was thinking about writing a book.

The catalyst was breaking up with my then-fiancé in late 1997. In the midst of all that rage and hurt and sleepless nights I started writing as a form of therapy. I wrote about a young man, naked in the dark, with a force inside him that he didn't understand and could barely control, and it was getting stronger. I didn't know who he was or how he'd got there, but I knew I had to find out.

Over the next decade the story progressed in fits and starts. The closer I got to the end, the more motivated I became to finish it. Up to this point, no-one had read it but me, because I was so afraid it was rubbish. I put some samples up on a couple of writers' websites, and the feedback blew me away. People liked what I'd written. One lady - who's a friend to this day - complained that the story was so engrossing she'd let a pan of rice boil dry on the stove for one more page. She still won't let me buy her a new pan.

Mixing with other writers gave me the confidence to give the manuscript a good hard edit, and in 2009, armed with my trusty Writers & Artists Yearbook, I drew up a shortlist of eight agents who handled fantasy and got to work on submissions. The first one rejected me, but with a complimentary handwritten note. The second one rang me at work and requested the full manuscript. Two days later he offered to represent me, and I accepted. Two weeks later Gollancz offered me a three-book deal.

And the other six agents? They all said no, but by then it was far too late! I sometimes wonder if any of them have realised what happened, and are kicking themselves... 

I’m sure they are, Elspeth. Certainly Gollancz seem beside themselves to have you a part of their storied roster. It’s not every book that comes adorned with such a bold statement as that in caps on the cover of the ARC of SONGS OF THE EARTH. 

Speaking of which, how does it feel to have written the fantasy debut of 2011? The bar’s been set dizzyingly high, hasn’t it? 

I nearly swallowed my tongue when I saw it. No pressure, right? Wow. I mean, this is just some stuff I made up in my spare time. Voices in my head. In any other line of work I'd be medicated for that.

Obviously, it's a sign of how much Gollancz believe in me and my book. As an author, that degree of faith is overwhelming. Reassuring, supportive, but still overwhelming. If I try to be dispassionate and look at it in purely business terms, as a debut author I represent a significant investment for them, and they're working hard to make sure it pays off, which in its own way just cranks the bar up another few notches. *Shades eyes, squints at sky* Is it snowing up there?

I can't help but feel I've got a target painted on my back now, too. I worry that if someone doesn't like the book (and someone won't) they'll use that line as a stick to beat me with. "Call that the fantasy debut of 2011? You must be joking" etcetera. It raises expectations, and not everyone in the market is going to feel those expectations have been met when they read the book.

But really, being totally sensible about it, it's just words on the cover. What counts is what's inside, and people can make up their own minds about that. 

I’ll readily confess: the day before we started chatting, I wrote up my own review of SONGS OF THE EARTH for TSS, and was almost exactly as predictable - if in a different direction. A proclamation along those lines... it must be affirming, in a sense - as you say - but a target is exactly what it will seem, to some. If that’s how Gollancz hope to sell your debut, then the question has been begged, you know? It’s over to critics and reviewers to zero in on what makes it so, or not so, or something entirely its own when removed from the hyperbole. 

I suppose it’s all you can do in such times, to take the long view, as you intimate, Elspeth. Because of course, there will be criticism. Already there’s been criticism, and we’re months out from release yet. So now that your baby’s a book and the book’s poised to sail the seven seas, if you will, how ready do you feel for that? How has the letting go gone? 

Is a debut author ever truly ready? I've never been here before. It's all new and daunting and exhilarating and freakin' terrifying all at once, like riding a rollercoaster for the first time. The last 15 months or so have been the slow crawl to the top of the first hill, then at the turn of the year we hit the apex, six months to go, and now it's hands-in-the-air-oh-dear-god-I'm-gonna-die-wheeeeeeeee! all the way down to June. If you see what I mean.

I think I'm as ready as I can be. There's no point working myself into a tizzy about it, is there, because there's nothing I can do to influence how the book will be received. It's up to the readers now.

Letting go wasn't as hard as I thought it might be. I knew when the story was finished and ready for submission, because it resonated; I got that quiet, contented "Yes" in the back of my mind. So when it came to the edits that Gollancz requested, I was able to be quite detached and objective, almost as if I was looking at someone else's book. It wasn't "my baby" any more. Baby's all growed up and on his own. 

Well fare the wean well on his travels!

Of course, now the real work starts – isn’t that what they say?

***

But wait! There's more!

Except I'm saving the rest for Thursday, because honestly, Elspeth and I talked a lot.

In the meantime, stay tuned for my review of Songs of the Earth tomorrow - and come back the day after, when The Speculative Spotlight returns. Among the discussion to come: Elspeth expounds on how the personal feeds into the professional, we talk contemporary women's fiction, planning, chilli chocolate...

...and oh! The book, too. ;)