About the Author | Meet G. Willow Wilson

In the inaugural edition of About the Author, I introduced you to Tom Pollock, author of The City's Son, one of my favourite first novels of 2012 to date.

Today, it gives me great pleasure to welcome the wonderful author of another such novel to The Speculative Scotsman: a tour-de-force debut that I made no bones about adoring in my review. In fact, it's safe to say Alif the Unseen may feature in my roundup of the year's best books, when the time comes to make such declarations. It really is that good, guys.

In the interim, if for some mysterious reason you're still not convinced, perhaps the fascinating chat I had with G. Willow Wilson will tip the balance in the correct direction. You need only read on, readers!

***

A very good afternoon to you, Ms. Wilson. I’m Niall. Pleased to meet you – and doubly so to have you here on The Speculative Scotsman.

It’s my pleasure! Thanks for the invitation.

First things first, then: could you tell us a little bit about yourself? For those folks not yet in the know, who are you, and how did you come to be here?

Let’s see: one of the questions I get asked a lot is “What does the G stand for?” the answer to which is ‘Gwendolyn.’ I’m about to turn thirty. I was born and grew up in the United States, but after university I moved to Cairo, Egypt, where I spent most of my early and mid-twenties. I got married and built a home there, and the city, as well as the wider Middle East, remains one of the primary inspirations for my work. I’m about to have my second child. I was a latecomer to video games, but now I love them. I think that covers the critical stuff.

Though it’s been available in the United States for some time, your first novel proper, Alif the Unseen, came out in the UK late last week. I’m of the opinion that everyone with eyes should buy it, but why? What do you think makes your fictional debut distinct?

High praise! And that’s a good question. When I finished writing my last book, The Butterfly Mosque (which was nonfiction), I wanted to do something completely different, giving free rein to both my pop cultural sensibilities and my interest in politics and religion. Alif was what came out. I suppose what makes it unique is the free mixing of low-tech mythology and high-tech computer culture. Djinn using wifi. Djinn ex machina. I don’t know that that’s been done before.

Given the opportunity, which I know many marketing departments deny their authors, how would you blurb your book?

A young Arab-Indian hacker in an unnamed oil emirate falls in love with the wrong girl and goes on the run from a shadowy state security apparatus known only as The Hand. Plus genies, the Islamist girl next door, a car chase through the desert, and much speculating about the place of myth and religion in the modern world.

As I’ve alluded, Alif the Unseen is a debut in technical terms, but it’s very far from the first piece of work you’ve had published. Could you talk a little bit about the many and various other things you’ve written?

Gosh, there’s a lot. I worked as a journalist for several years while living in Cairo, and then got into comics pretty seriously — I’ve written a graphic novel, one monthly series and several miniseries for DC Comics and Marvel, the two biggest comics publishers in the US.

Your first ongoing comic book, AIR for Vertigo, about an acrophobic flight attendant who becomes caught up in a terrorist plot to take over the skies, ran for 24 issues before being cancelled in mid-2010 due to low sales. That is, if I’m to believe Wikipedia.

Should I? Or is there maybe more to the story?

There isn’t more, I’m afraid. AIR garnered a fair amount of critical praise — it was nominated for an Eisner Award — but it just never sold very well. It was born into a soft market, and it was a very, very weird book. But it’s had a bit of a second life in the backlist. Someone sent me photos a couple of years ago of a woman cosplaying the main character at San Diego Comic Con. That made me feel I’d arrived.

Two years later, how do you view AIR today? I’ve been reading the first few trades in readiness for this interview, and this is no slight – as of the third collected volume, I’m enjoying the series a great deal – but AIR is very much a product of its time, isn’t it?

Very much so. I joked with Karen Berger, who edited the series, that in ten years AIR would look like a period piece. AIR was a response to a very particular post-9/11 moment in American history, when we came to see air travel not as this luxurious, jet-setting mode of transport, a la the 1960s, but as a threat to national security, a hassle, and the symbol of a changed world. Something in the American character really altered, and AIR is a sort of psychadelic tribute to that.

Is Alif the Unseen, equally? A product of its particular period, I mean.

Not intentionally! When I started writing it, no one had any inkling that the Arab Spring was right around the corner. I knew change was afoot in the Middle East and I knew that young computer savvy hacktivists were a big part of that, but I had no idea it was going to blow up the way it did. I frankly thought I was overselling the importance of the digital youth movement in the Middle East. But I wasn’t.

Getting back to the matter at hand, might I ask how the new book came about?

I don’t rightly know. I wanted to talk about the digital underground, and while I was mulling it over a hacker friend — upon whom Alif is very loosely based — disappeared from the internet. Like disappeared. And I thought, how might one go about that? And suddenly there was a book in my head.

You’ve spoken before about how Alif the Unseen was born out of rage. Could you explain what that means here?

I was tired of being forced into boxes. Pre-Arab Spring, people only seemed to want to hear about a handful of things when it came to the Middle East: terrorists, the exotic undeveloped Orient (which no longer exists), and The Crisis Of Muslim Women, about which most honest-to-God Muslim women are somewhat perplexed. Even for nonfiction, there was a script, a narrative one was supposed to follow. The fact that Arab youth were not only adopting cutting-edge technology, but using it in revolutionary ways, was not interesting to people. It didn’t fit the script. It didn’t involve camels or gender segregation. It was very, very frustrating. So I said screw it, I’m writing a novel. And then came the Arab Spring.

In a one-off column for Vertigo Voices, way back when, you wrote: “Once upon a time an observant therapist told me I had categorized and self-analyzed my subconscious so well that I could talk for hours without revealing anything about myself.” How then does Alif the Unseen speak to who you are?

I said that? How pretentious. Well, it’s true. And in that vein, Alif is the most autobiographical thing I’ve ever written, and I’ve written an autobiography. Alif is a pretty good image of what my head looks like. I don’t perceive a proper line between the seen and the unseen, or between high culture and pop culture. I live a very odd life — I’m a comics and media junky living in a very conservative religious community, shuttling between civilizatons. Alif contains elements of all those things.

They say home is where the heart is. If I may, where’s your heart, Ms. Wilson, and how has that factored into your fiction?

Home for me is one place: Boulder, Colorado, which is a little university town in the Rocky Mountains.

It’s where I went to high school; my parents still live there, and I make yearly pilgrimages to see them and catch up with old friends at my favorite cafe. But like Frodo at the end of The Lord of the Rings, I can’t quite go back to living in the Shire, much as I might want to. I've seen too much of the rest of the world, and living in a small town involves a lot of pretending that the rest of the world does not exist. I suppose the profound psychological displacement that entails must have an impact on my fiction, but other people are usually better at detecting it than I am. To me, being unsettled is normal.

As a comic book writer, a journalist, an American Muslim, a successful memoirist and now (if I may) a genre novelist, I think it’s fair to say you engage with some significantly different audiences. Is there a hope that Alif the Unseen will perhaps bridge these gaps? 

Come to that, the book’s been out in the US for a few months. Has it?

One can always hope. That was one of my big goals with this book. Comics fans are very loyal and will follow one into whatever genre one pursues, but the reverse is less common. Will people who like reading nonfiction pick up a book like Alif? Butterfly Mosque seems to have resonated most intensely with women (I’ve done many a reading to a 100% female audience) and Alif is absent a lot of the qualities of personal intimacy and reflection that attracted those readers. It’s a little more action-y, and involves young men doing stupid things. There’s a whiff of comic book about it. So it’s difficult to say.

What would you say to people who think “genre” is a dirty word? And how does hearing Alif the Unseen described as such sit with you?

I’m perfectly happy to hear Alif described as genre. I think people need to get over the idea that genre fiction cannot have literary merit or political relevance. In fact, with trends being what they are — look at the success of George R. R. Martin’s Song of Ice and Fire — I think that’s already happening. Let’s not forget that genre fiction started out as a way to sneak cultural commentary into a highly censorious environment. (I’m thinking of the great sci-fi pioneers of the 1950s and 60s.)

Changing gears, are there any particular authors or novels that have been an inspiration to you?

Neil Gaiman; Neal Stephenson; Peter Milligan’s graphic opus Shade: The Changing Man, which I consider the best comic book series ever written; Umberto Eco — especially Foucault’s Pendulum, to which I feel Alif owes something; EM Forster, who never wrote a bad book; and a lot of 1980’s high fantasy, particularly Mercedes Lackey’s Valdemar series and Anne McCaffrey’s Dragonriders.

Meanwhile, how does it feel to inspire others in turn? Even if you aren’t convinced that it has as yet, I don’t doubt that your work will, Ms. Wilson.

I never know how to respond when readers say I’ve inspired them--it’s such an intense compliment that simply saying “thanks” seems inadequate. If you’ve written me a fan letter saying as much and I haven’t written back, that’s why. The most important thing is to go out and use that inspiration, because it’s precious. Where it came from almost doesn’t matter.

I dare say it’s about time we closed the book on this interview, but before I let you off the hook, how can people keep up to speed with all things G. Willow Wilson? I’ve already made reference to your blog, but I do believe you tweet, too!

I tweet like a bandit. That’s probably the best way to get in touch with my directly. I’ve become a very bad, neglectful blogger, but I do post when I can. My website also has info on upcoming appearances and links to buy books.

Speaking – albeit briefly – of tweeting, is social media going to bring down the world as we know it? I’m referring here to your essay entitled Who’s Afraid of Pop Culture?

Social media isn’t going to bring down anything, except perhaps work productivity. People used to be afraid of the printing press, but that didn’t turn out so badly, did it? Yes, there are intensely stupid conversations on Twitter and Reddit and Facebook, but there are intensely stupid conversations in real life. Listen to the idiot in front of you in the checkout line at the grocery store. That’s Twitter. That’s life.

With which, what’s next for you? Another novel? Will you be going back to comics? Or is mum the word at the moment?

I’m in the midst of another as yet untitled novel, set mostly on the high seas. Fans of a particular long-haired lothario djinn from Alif will be pleased to see him again. There’s nothing on tap at this very moment comics-wise, but I’m sure there will be before long.

Last but not least: in the spirit of the secret world that features in Alif the Unseen, tell us something about yourself that no-one knows.

I never wear matching socks. This is not a reflection of my profound iconoclasm; only the disarray of my sock drawer.

And that’s that!

Thank you so much for taking the time to answer my questions, Ms. Wilson. Getting to know you a little bit better has been an absolute pleasure on my part, and I'm sure the folks at home feel the same way.

Thank you!

***

G. Willow Wilson was a great sport agreeing to speak with me in the first place, and I'm deeply in her debt for answering even the most inane of my questions. She was last seen (by me) in the comments section of my review of her book, so if for instance you've already read Alif the Unseen and you'd like to tell her how much you enjoyed it... well, by now I warrant you know what to do.

Coming up on The Speculative Scotsman shortly, my thoughts on The Underwater Welder by comic book mastermind Jeff Lemire, and the first flush of fun new feature wherein I ask that eternal question: is this sex scene Hot, or Not?

We'll all be talking dirty tomorrow! :P

About the Author | Meet Tom Pollock

I don't often talk about what's coming up on The Speculative Scotsman.

To do so is to make a promise to you fine folks that there's every chance I'll break, and obviously, that's not on. But today I'm going to make an exception, because tomorrow's content is, as they say, in the can. I know not what can. Or why one would can content in the first place — but there you go.

Anyway, tomorrow on TSS, I'm going to post my review of a speculative debut that impressed me tremendously: The City's Son by Tom Pollock. Not to toot the horn, but I've had a galley for many months, and keeping this piece under wraps for so long has been a matter of some consternation to yours truly, because this book... this book is something else. 

It's coming out a week from today here in the UK, and I'd urge anyone with a passing interest in urban fantasy to get their pre-orders in immediately. If there's any justice in our bookish corner of the blogosphere, you'll be hearing a whole lot more about The City's Son in the months to come.

Tomorrow, then, the review. So why I am blithering about it today?

That's because it was my immense pleasure to sit down with Tom Pollock, figuratively if alas not literally, to have a chat about who he is, how he got here, what his first book's all about, and various other subjects — all for the inaugural edition of About the Author. Which is to say a new feature here on TSS, which differs from the other interviews I've conducted on the blog because of its specific subject: namely new writers I really like the look of.

Also, it's intended to be a series both short and sweet — by my standards, at least.

Enough introduction. Let's get to this thing!

***

Good day to you, Tom Pollock.

And a very good day to you, Niall Alexander.

So, first things first: tell us a little bit about yourself, sir. For those folks not yet in the know, who are you, and what are you doing on The Speculative Scotsman? 

I’m an urban fantasy novelist, a book hoover and a dispenser of what I’m told are excellent hugs from a man of my size.

How would you describe your debut?

Probably the most urban fantasy you’ve ever read.

First novels are obviously ten-a-penny. Now don’t get me wrong: I’ve read yours, and I tend to think it’s something special — hence the questions. But what do you think makes your debut distinct?

Not sure I agree with the ten-a-penny assertion — there’s a wave of debuts now for sure, but I’ve read a lot of them and they mostly had something interesting going on.

As for The City’s Son, I’d say it’s the slantwise look it takes at London, the way it restores the sense of the weird (and The Weird) under the brick and concrete. I’ve had a couple of early readers tell me it’s made them afraid of cranes.

As far as advance reaction goes, I’ll take that.

How did it come about, anyway? What was the initial spark behind The City’s Son?

The initial spark was a feeling more than an idea. The City’s Son is supposed to be a dark ‘just-so’ story for the city, so you can look at ordinary things: streetlamps coming on at dusk, trains stopping and waiting mid-journey, and there’s this whole creation mythology for why that happens. I think I made this stuff up because I felt an emotional connection to London that went beyond what you think you’d feel for a collection of streets and buildings. I wanted to cast it in terms of a metaphor that made sense of that.

Going back a bit farther: have you always been a fan of speculative fiction?

Always. I think my Mum must’ve watched the Ralf Bakshi Lord of The Rings when she was pregnant. My passion for non-existent things started early and continues unabated, especially monsters, magic doors and anything to do with dark mirror-images. As a kid I was crazy for Jekyll and Hyde, or the thing Sparrowhawk lets loose in A Wizard of Earthsea. (I still am).

What would you say to people who think “genre” is a dirty word?

I suppose I’d say you either have a genre taxonomy to help you understand literature or you don’t, and either way is fine, but if you do think in genre terms then surely every book should be in at least one genre? Genres are continents on a map, and at the moment the cartographers are telling us that a bunch of countries don’t have a continent because they’re special. I think the map just needs redrawing.

Are there any particular authors who have been an inspiration to you and/or your work?

Tons. Dozens. The acknowledgements to The City’s Son lists Alan Garner, China Mieville, David Almond, Neil Gaiman and Patrick Ness, but that’s just the tip of the Star Destroyer. Ursula Le Guin’s an inspiration, Jon Courtenay Grimwood, Garth Nix, Tolkein, Frank Herbert. If I hadn’t read any one of these authors, the books I write would be worse for it.

I know it’s an impossible question, but I’m going to ask it anyway. What’s your favourite book, and why?

Oh… Christ. Um. Ok, tempting as it is to go for something clever and obscure, I’m going to say The Lord of The Rings.

Why? Because it’s got a conviction to it I’ve never seen matched. The effect of the language and maps and the density of the thought in Middle Earth combine to make a story I found it impossible not to believe in. I think World Building’s become a bit of a dirty word in fantasy recently. I’d like it back please.

Moving on, where are you from, and how do you think that’s factored into your fiction.

London. Every way and every how.

And what do you do for a living, Tom, when you’re not making stuff up? Has your past or present employment in any sense shaped the way you work?

Right now I help build very big ships. I don’t know if that’s impacted the writing overly much to be honest. Although I wouldn’t rule out a tankerpunk story in the future.

Have you always thought of yourself as an author? Was that the end goal from the beginning, I wonder, or was there something else you wanted to be when you were little?

Oh when I was little enough I wanted to be a beetle, then a superhero, then a ghost, then for a brief period I wanted to be all three. When I decided I wanted to be a writer I felt I’d taken a step forward in my ambitions, that this was a grown up thing to want. My Dad didn’t agree so much.

Now that your book’s very nearly here, the long, hard road to publication is a fearfully easy thing to gloss over, but before my point’s entirely moot, might I ask how you went about breaking in? Was it as long and as hard as all that?

Not for me, but I got very lucky. I wrote a book, polished it up and started querying. The agent and then the editors who happened to deeply connect with my work happened to see it early. It could have taken much longer.

One thing I would say though, it never hurts to come to cons and meet people. If nothing else it’s a good way to make friends who like the same stuff as you, and good things often come of that.

How about when you realised your dream was about to be realised. Tell me about that moment.

My new editor took me out for lunch. I’m a clutz and when surprised I have a tendency to fumble whatever I’m holding - in this case a bowl of steaming miso soup. There were tears, tears of joy, yes, but also of scalding.

So how are you holding up in the run-up to release week? What are you most looking forward to, and is there anything you’re particularly dreading?

I’m doing okay, I’m looking forward to the launch (I’m reading, and it’s always fun to simulate the sound of a train-wreck with the back of my throat). I’m mostly dreading the launch. In case no-one comes :)

Do you maintain a social media presence? If so, how has that affected your work ethic?

I mess around on Twitter quite a bit, and update my blog with alarming irregularity. Mostly whenever I have something vaguely theory-driven or academic to say. My work ethic is close to indestructible, owing to the fact that it’s so small and ephemeral it’s virtually at the quantum level anyway so you can’t break it down any further.

How important do you think blogs are in terms of getting the good word about your book and the work of other new authors out there?

I have no idea. My best guess is it’s a big component of word of mouth in the bookish world, but their influence will be indirect and not always obvious.

So what’s next for you, Tom? Where do you see yourself in a year?

Next up is the sequel. The Glass Republic is due in October and should be out this time next year. I’m about halfway through writing it and it’s a very weird book. The main character’s one of the supporting ones from The City’s Son, and she’s been a blast to write.

I first came across your name in the fantastic Pandemonium anthology, edited by the wonderful pair behind Pornokitsch, but besides that and The City’s Son, have you had any other work published? If so, where might the good folks find it?

Nope, that’s it for me! I’m not a prolific short story writer. I love and admire them when I read them, and every now and then I get an idea for one, but by and large I’m a long-form kinda guy.

Alas, this inaugural edition of About the Author is drawing to a close, but before I let you off the hook, how can people keep up to speed with all things Tom Pollock?

Best way is probably on my twitter @tomhpollock (what the H stands for is a state secret in eighteen countries). If you’ve got an RSS feed you could add my blog www.tompollock.com, especially if you like random musing essays and Polar Bears.

Last but not least: tell me something about yourself that no-one knows.

Oh, go on! I don’t know about these guys, but I can keep a secret. :)

It’s not something no-one knows, but I spend every eighth week on 24 call out notice in case of pirate attack.

Thanks for taking the time to answer my questions, Tom. I’m sure we can all agree, getting to know you a little bit better has been an absolute pleasure.

Cheers dude!

***

So how did everyone like that?

Do pop on over to Tom's blog, or follow the fellow on Twitter, if you want to hear more from this extraordinarily promising up-and-coming author.

Meanwhile, if you fancy a few more of these features... say so!

Last but not least, remember to stay tuned to The Speculative Scotsman for my review of The City's Son tomorrow. Spoiler alert: I think it's pretty brilliant.

Meme, Myself and I | Now With 100% More Mieneke

A little while ago, Mieneke van der Salm of A Fantastical Librarian fame asked if I wouldn't mind answering a couple of questions for her new Blogger Query feature.

I agreed immediately. I had already seen her interview with Stefan of Civilian Reader, and secretly, I was hoping she would ask. As you folks know, I talk about myself and my personal experiences here on The Speculative Scotsman almost every day, but always in support of a point, and the point had never before been me. In Blogger Query, however, the tables are turned.

One of the eternal book reviewer debates is to rate or not to rate? Where do you stand on the issue?

You know, I used to be militant about this. I was of the mind that a number, no matter how many or how few of them you had to choose from, was an awfully simplistic way to talk about anything.

The argument has always been the most important thing to me, and it still is: I’d much rather read about how a book reviewer formed an opinion than look at a number and be done with it. And that’s one of the risks, isn’t it? That you see a 5 or 6 or a 7 – not that there are terribly many of those (though that’s a whole other discussion) – and think... well why bother?

Ratings used to really rub me the wrong way, but I guess I’m getting mellow in my old age, because I’ve learned to live with them. As a sort of shorthand, sure... though I’m still of the opinion that book reviews shouldn’t be written in shorthand.

Negative reviews, yay or nay? And why?

Oh, yay. Absolutely! There aren’t very many things I find more fascinating than a negative perspective – so long as it’s reasoned and reasonably well written – on some new hotness that everyone seems to adore.

In fact the very idea that anyone would say nay to the notion of negative reviews – excepting authors, given their intimate involvement – the very idea offends me no end. What could possibly be the problem with someone having an opinion that isn’t identical to every other opinion? That’s the sort of thing the world needs more of, not less.

So say you want to know about the role of speculative fiction in modern English education, or the relationship between blogs and readers and writers. Say you're interested in hearing how The Speculative Scotsman came about, or what I want from the future. Where before you would have had to bribe me with bookish delights to secure such insights - I kid of course - now all anyone need do is pop on over to A Fantastical Librarian, and read the most recent installment of Blogger Query.

Which, to be perfectly frank, you should be doing on a daily basis anyway.

Last but not least, do keep your eyes peeled, peeps, because I'll be following up on a couple of the subjects Mieneke made me think about here on the site shortly, including firstly - and foremostly - the fall of blogging.

Guest Post | The Walker of Worlds Interviews Eric Brown

I did all my burbling about the great Mark Chitty yesterday, so let's just cut to the chase today. Walker of Worlds is awesome. I have a hard time believing that there's anyone out there with an eye on science fiction and speculative literature that isn't already reading, but in the unlikely event some of you lovely lot are the exceptions to the rule... well. You know what to do.

Now let the Q&A commence! :)

***

Firstly, many thanks for taking the time to answer a few questions.

If I may, I'd like to start by talking about The Kings of Eternity (Mark's review, Niall's review, SFFWorld review). You mentioned in my last interview with you in 2010 that you had "...been writing the novel, on and off, for ten years, and I think it's probably the best thing I've done." It certainly was a great novel, and from the reviews I've seen from around the internet I'm not alone in that. Both Mark Yon and Rob Bedford over at SFFWorld.com named it their favourite science fiction release of 2011. How have you found the reaction to it?

Thanks for your kind words – I’m pleased you enjoyed it.

To my delight, the reaction has been uniformly excellent. I don’t think I’ve come across one bad review… yet. When one of my books is published I’m pretty resigned to reviews running the gamut from good to bad and everything in between. When a book goes out there, I know that some people will love it, some hate it with equal passion, and many people won’t give a damn either way. The response to Kings is especially rewarding as of all my books it’s the one I’m most pleased with. I loved writing it, I loved rewriting it, and, when I dip into it very occasionally, it’s the novel that picks me up and carries me along – it’s almost as if I didn’t write it. It’s certainly the novel that means the most to me, of all my stuff: I identify with the characters, their predicaments, and the sentiments expressed. Because I wrote it over such a protracted period – over ten years – I think it had time to mature, and I certainly had the opportunity to go back to it again and again and tinker, fix, cut…

I believe your next novel due out, Weird Space: The Devil's Nebula, is a venture into a shared world setting with Abaddon Books. Can you tell us a little about the novel?

The Devil’s Nebula is about small starship, ostensibly a salvage ship, and its crew of almost-criminals in a future fascistic, human empire. They sail close to the judicial wind, keeping just to this side of the law – until they land on a world within the out-of-bounds territory of the alien Vetch, searching for art treasures. Caught by the Terran authorities, they’re given an ultimatum: ‘face the death penalty or take your ship beyond Vetch territory to the Devil’s Nebula, in search of a colony ship that left human-space a century earlier’… It’s out-and-out space adventure, of the type I love to read, set in a universe where an evil alien life-force, the Weird, are bent on invading our universe through portals from another dimensions. It’s a space opera with Lovecraftian overtones.

How did you find the process of creating such a setting knowing that other authors would be writing within it at a future date?

That’s one of the delights of the project: setting up the background – the ground-rules, if you like – and seeing where other writers will take it. I’m looking forward to reading the novels in the series and taking inspiration from them, borrowing ideas maybe, riffs, and hopefully writing more in the series. It has great scope for many fascinating adventure stories, of many types, and I’m fascinated to see where it goes. The first novel, while complete in itself, sets up the series, leaving many ideative avenues for others to explore.

After The Devil’s Nebula we've got Helix Wars to look forward to, a sequel to your 2007 novel, Helix (SFFWorld review). Is there anything you can say about that yet, and why the choice to return to that setting?

Helix Wars is set two hundred years after the events depicted in Helix. Humankind has settled on New Earth, the colony is thriving, and the alien Builders of the Helix have conferred upon humanity the mantle of Peacekeepers – to monitor the six thousand-odd alien races who inhabit the Helix. However, the Builders ceased communicating with the human colonists around a hundred and ninety years ago, retreating into virtual quiescence. The humans have been going it alone for that long and successfully keeping the peace between the various races – until now. Further along the fourth circuit of the Helix where New Earth is situated, an alien race known as the Sporelli has invaded the peaceful world of Phandra and the neighbouring world of D’rayni, and the central character, Jeff Ellis, is caught up in the conflict when his shuttle crash-lands on Phandra and he is saved by the elfin, pacific natives. What follows is a story of personal loyalty – as Ellis attempts to save the life of the woman who saved him, when she is kidnapped by the Sporelli – and the destiny of various races on the Helix.

The Helix is a vast playground, and it was great to return to it. I’ve had great fun writing this novel – I love SF adventures featuring humans and aliens, exotic settings, fabulous inventions, crash-landed starships, strange cults… I can see myself (if my publisher so wishes) returning again and again to the world(s) of the Helix. The amount of fun I can have there is never-ending.

Any further novels planned, and if so can we get a sneaky bit of info on them?

The novel contracted for after Helix Wars is The Serene Invasion. It’s an idea I’ve had for years, and one I’ve wanted to write for ages. And it might be the most difficult I’ve ever tackled. The background is that an alien race, the Serene, come to Earth and abolishes the act of violence, our capability for violence, for the better of the human race. The novel will follow the consequences of this over the course of approximately forty years. It will focus on three or four characters and chart not only how their lives have changed, but how society and the race as a whole have been transformed. I want to write a novel of character, like Kethani, and a big novel of ideas. Sometimes I’m daunted by the task I’ve set myself. I’m confident of depicting the characters to my satisfaction, but it’s the societal examination of the premise that will be a big challenge.

After that… As I mentioned earlier, I’d like to do another Weird Space novel. And I’m always working on short stories. I’ll be writing a novella soon with Keith Brooke, and finishing off my Salvageman Ed story cycle, which very possibly will be appearing as a book in France before anywhere else.

I have a collection (Ghostwriting) of my horror stories due out soon, as both an e-book and a pod book, from infinity plus books. I’ve just had a proof copy through, and it looks great. It contains my eight horror/ghost stories to date – though they’re not bloody, gory, macabre tales, rather examinations of characters in stressful/horrific situations. Depending on how well Ghostwriting sells, infinity plus books might also do my e-book SF collection, The Angels of Life and Death, as a pod book.

I wrote a crime novel last year, set in 1955 – it’s still doing the rounds – and I’d like to write further novels about the central character.

All in all, what with moving up to Dunbar in Scotland earlier this year, I’m more than a little busy.

Somewhere across the Atlantic ocean, a Scotman's ears just perked up, Eric! If I might for a moment intrude on this excellent interview Mark's been conducting with you - and let me take this opportunity to say thank you, thank you several times over for that matter, for taking the time to answer our pesky questions - might I ask if the move you mention to Dunbar in bonnie old Scotland has inspired you at all, creatively speaking or in some other sense? As I recall, you have a lovely castle and a beautiful harbour up that-a-way as well...

Too early to say, yet. I usually find I'm inspired by countryside, and it's certainly beautiful up here. So there might be short stories forthcoming using the local setting. While I was living near Cambridge, I found the flatness of the landscape (after hilly Yorkshire) rather uninspiring... though the city of Cambridge itself is beautiful. I've found in the past that I start writing about places only after a longish while, so Scotland might feature in a year or so.

You’ve recently had some of your older novels and novellas come out through the ebook imprints Infinity Plus Books and Anarchy Books. Have you updated any of these, and are there any plans to get the remainder of your backlist out via this format?

I’ve not updated anything that’s gone into e-book format, other than correct of few errors or typos and things. Most of my longer work is available in e-books, I think – with the exception of The Fall of Tartarus and my two Web books for children, Untouchable and Walkabout. Solaris e-books all my novels; PS Publishing brings out all the novellas I’ve done for them as e-books (or will do soon); and Anarchy Books are doing the Virex trilogy.

Speaking of ebooks, the success of the Kindle and other devices has brought a flood of self-published books to the market. What are your thoughts on the ease in which books can be published like this, especially with many of yours available in e-versions only?

Well, it does mean that the market is flooded with unedited rubbish, so it’s harder for the reader to wade through the dross to find the good stuff. And, I suppose, that means my e-work will be buried under the flood. But I’m not complaining. I often wonder if, had the internet and e-publishing, and POD, been around when I started writing thirty-odd years ago, I might have gone down that road to start with. What I did was put all my unpublished – and unpublishable work (some twenty-odd novels and three hundred short stories) – under my bed, where it didn’t get edited, or read.

I’ve read three authors recently who self-published their stuff as e-books, sold – or had downloaded – millions, and achieved real publishing deals as a result - two Americans and a Brit. All three books were garbage, and I despise the respective publishers for jumping on the band-wagon.

I still think Alfred Bester’s dictum should be seriously considered by every writer (and I’m paraphrasing him here): Write a million words, and only then try to sell.

We've covered ebooks, but what are your thoughts on audiobooks? I'm a big fan, especially on long walks and journeys, but searching the popular site such as Audible and Amazon turns up no results for anything of yours. Do you know of any plans to bring your stories to life in this way? And what are your thoughts on audiobooks?

Three or four of my children's books have been done as audio books, and they're excellent. I don't listen to audio books myself, (I don't drive, don't walk that far, so the opportunities to do so are limited - and I don't have baths, but showers.) But I'm all for them if they get the author's work out there - and if they don't take liberties in terms of cuts and edits etc. As for how to get my SF made into audio books, I'll ask my agent.

You mention that you’re always working on short stories, and you’ve had some collections of these out in the past (Kethani (Mark's review), The Fall of Tartarus (Mark's review)). I like the idea of these collections that focus on the same setting and/or characters, and I’m aware that you have other short stories and novellas that fall into this category (the Starship stories, Salvageman Ed). Can you see these being collected either as a print or ebook edition in the future?

Ideally I’d like to see them as print books. PS Publishing is doing all four Starship novellas in one big hardback volume – so it’d be lovely to see a mass market paperback of that. It’d work, as in total it’s around 120k, and reads like a novel. As for the Salvageman Ed tales; they stand at 70k at the moment, and they’re almost finished, and it looks as if they’ll be coming out in France as a print book from the people who publish the Bifrost SF magazine, where some of the tales have run.

Finally, where would you recommend a new reader to your work to start?

Mmm… that’s a difficult question, because it depends what the reader likes. For readers who prefer space opera, I’d recommend Helix, Penumbra and Engineman; for those who like more quiet, introspective, character-driven SF I’d recommend The Kings of Eternity; Kethani; The Fall of Tartarus; and the Starship novellas, and the novella Gilbert and Edgar on Mars, featuring G. K. Chesterton and Edgar Rice Burroughs on the red planet. Then the Bengal Station trilogy, I suppose, combines both space opera and character – in fact, in terms of characterisation, I think Vaughan in those books is my most successful creation, in that I managed to achieve – I think – exactly what I set out to do in starting with someone who had very little to live for, was a nihilist at the start of the first book, and through his experiences over the course of the three books came to some degree of happiness and contentment.

***

Mark, I can't thank you enough for all this - and a massive tip of the hat to Eric as well! A fellow Scotsman, as good as, and truly an excellent author to boot. I know I can hardly wait to read The Devil's Nebula.


But I really must wave goodbye for the day. And that's it for Mark and Eric too, I'm afraid... but that isn't to say we're all out of awesome, here on TSS. Why I do declare we're hardly even halfway! :)

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!

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. ;)