{"id":20283,"date":"2013-09-05T00:01:09","date_gmt":"2013-09-05T04:01:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/?p=20283"},"modified":"2013-09-04T21:36:47","modified_gmt":"2013-09-05T01:36:47","slug":"ten-questions-about-heart-of-briar-soul-of-fire-by-laura-anne-gilman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/2013\/09\/05\/ten-questions-about-heart-of-briar-soul-of-fire-by-laura-anne-gilman\/","title":{"rendered":"Ten Questions About Heart of Briar \/ Soul of Fire, by Laura Anne Gilman"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

I love Laura Anne Gilman not merely because she is an excellent writer but because she also delivers unto writers excellent writing advice — advice that is practical and wise and comes from a place of actual experience, not just, you know, from the peaks of Made-Shit-Up Mountain. Here she talks about her next two books:<\/em><\/p>\n

Tell Us About Yourself: Who The Hell Are You?<\/h2>\n

Former book editor for various NY Publishers, who fled the 8-6 life nearly ten years ago (ten years this November!) for the relatively low-paying but blessedly meeting-less freelance life.\u00a0 Which takes care of the resume portion of WTHAY.\u00a0 Otherwise, I\u2019m a Jersey Girl-turned-New Yorker who left half her heart in Seattle, a cat owner who loves dogs, an urban sophisticate who loves camping and hiking, a clotheshorse who spends most of her days in jeans and bare feet.\u00a0 Hot temper but a blessedly long fuse, liberal but not a Democrat (politics, pheh), foodie and oenophile, and generally still having fucks to give but far more reserved about where and to whom I give them.<\/p>\n

Also known for the past twenty years as \u201cmeerkat.\u201d<\/p>\n

Give Us The 140-Character Story Pitch:<\/h2>\n

I\u2019m retelling the Tam Lin legend in post-Internet world. With geeks, elves, snark, an asthmatic heroine, and a classic Gilman-style ending.<\/p>\n

Where Does This Story Come From?<\/h2>\n

The same place all my stories do: a very dark, slightly terrifying back room in my brain, where all the bits and bobs I magpie out of the daily world get shoved.\u00a0 They sit there for years, rubbing shoulders with each other, talking in low voices, wondering when, if ever, they\u2019ll see light of day again, getting paranoid and occasionally hallucinating, until a group of them achieve critical mass and explode out of my ear and onto the page.<\/p>\n

I was thinking about my next project, trying to find a different \u2018jumping off\u2019 point from the mystery-built UF I\u2019d been writing before, and thinking that it would be fun to write a straight-on save-the-world fantasy adventure, something very traditional, and then give it a technological twist.\u00a0 And \u2013 as per my editor\u2019s request \u2013 keeping love\/romance as a prime mover in the plot.<\/p>\n

*boom*\u00a0 An epic somantic legend, some PTSD, a bit of scientific thingamajiggery, and a non-traditional ending that will piss some people off\u2026<\/p>\n

Along the way, I picked up the challenge to write a duology, where the story continues, and yet is not a \u201csecond half\u201d or a sequel, but the next logical act in an ongoing play.\u00a0 So that\u2019s how \u201cretell Tam Lin\u201d became HEART OF BRIAR\/SOUL OF FIRE.<\/p>\n

How Is This A Story Only You Could\u2019ve Written?<\/h2>\n

Individually, anyone else might have come up with the specifics \u2013 the legend to be rewritten, the idea of the protag as a woman who has trained herself to avoid conflict and physical activity, the snarky-and-unsexy werewolf advisor, the science behind the magic\u2026 it\u2019s the putting them all together and giving them voices that was uniquely me.\u00a0 Because that\u2019s what proper storytelling is<\/em> \u2013 the combination of elements anyone could think of, in a way that nobody\u2019s thought of yet.\u00a0 So the more you develop individual thinking and ways of seeing, the more likely you are to write something someone else says \u201cdude, I did not<\/em> see that coming.\u201d\u00a0 Or, as one of my beta readers signed, \u201conly you, Gilman\u2026.\u201d<\/p>\n

What Was The Hardest Thing About Writing HEART OF BRIAR\/SOUL OF FIRE<\/em>?<\/h2>\n

Not letting the secondary characters take over.\u00a0 Jan started out as a strong, full-throated chatacter, but barely a chapter in, and it was a little like watching the Wizard of Oz \u2013 you know that Dorothy is the quest-character, but everyone else is chewing the scenery so wonderfully, you want to spend more time with them, too.<\/p>\n

Much to my surprise, Tyler \u2013 who was a bit of an intentional cypher to begin with, as the wayward boyfriend, really developed away from where I\u2019d thought he would go.\u00a0 The more page-time he got, the more he changed the story away from the original outline.\u00a0 Thankfully my editor understood and approved the change, because trying to shove him back in the box would have been impossible, and (IMO) would have made for a less-satisfying story.<\/p>\n

What Did You Learn Writing HEART OF BRIAR\/SOUL OF FIRE<\/em>?<\/h2>\n

Other than the fact that duologies are possibly even harder than trilogies?\u00a0 The fine art of writing engaging \u201cinternal\u201d scenes.\u00a0 My previous novels were either caper-plots (very few pauses), or more traditional quest-plots, where each scene tends to favor physical movement over internal.\u00a0 But this book often had scenes that needed<\/em> to be more static, even when they were physically in motion, to focus on the emotional and mental changes occurring.\u00a0 It requires a very different approach from the writer, to keep the voice consistent and not lose forward motion even while you\u2019re pulling your reader inside rather than pushing them forward\u2026.<\/p>\n

Suddenly, my habit of reading mainstream literary fiction came in handy! (both in knowing what I wanted, and what I didn\u2019t<\/em> want it to look like)<\/p>\n

What Do You Love About HEART OF BRIAR\/SOUL OF FIRE<\/em>?<\/h2>\n

The characters, and the culture they come from.\u00a0 I had so much fun discovering them, watching them develop under duress\u2026 especially, as I said, the secondary characters, and even the tertiary ones, who only appear in a scene or two \u2013 they all grew themselves out of their situations so wonderfully, I was tempted to go down some story-alleys and see what their journey might be\u2026\u00a0 (sadly: deadlines did not allow for story-alleys).<\/p>\n

What Would You Do Differently Next Time?<\/h2>\n

I think I would start out with it being Tyler AND Jan\u2019s story, rather than it being set up as Jan\u2019s story alone.\u00a0 I might have done them both a disservice \u2013 but I didn\u2019t realize that until halfway through SOUL OF FIRE. The relationship between Jan and Tyler starts the action, and for Reasons we can\u2019t see his take on things until later\u2026 but I\u2019d like to \u2013 given the chance \u2013 find some way to bring him forward more, earlier, and give his side of the story more play.\u00a0 Because in the end, he saves her as much as she saves him, even more than [character redacted for spoilers] does.\u00a0 It\u2019s just more subtle, and I think that will get overlooked, as I wrote it.But at the same time, every book you write, you write to the best of your ability at that time.\u00a0 And every book written would be totally different, even a year later\u2026<\/p>\n

Give Us Your Favorite Paragraph From The Story:<\/h2>\n

Seriously?\u00a0 Seriously?\u00a0 One paragraph\u2026.<\/p>\n

Okay, fine:<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re fucked, aren\u2019t we?\u201d<\/p>\n

AJ laughed, the low chuckle still as disturbing a sound as the first time she\u2019d heard it. \u201cWe\u2019ve been fucked since day one,\u201d he said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(from SOUL OF FIRE)<\/p>\n

What\u2019s Next For You As A Storyteller?<\/h2>\n

Something completely different.\u00a0 I\u2019m working on a story set in the early 1800\u2019s, a road trip adventure where the supernatural\/magical elements are so integrated into the world they\u2019re almost unnoticeable (nearly but not quite magical realism).\u00a0 The narrative voice is closer to much of my short fiction than my UF novels \u2013 more lyrical and considered, rather than the terser, \u201cmodern\u201d style I use here.\u00a0\u00a0 Maintaining that for nearly a hundred thousand words is keeping me on my toes\u2026<\/p>\n

Also, writing a teenager primary character.\u00a0 God, the pathos!\u00a0 The stress!\u00a0 The whinging!\u00a0 And that\u2019s just from the adults who have to deal with her!\u00a0 (I joke.\u00a0 Mostly.)<\/p>\n

Laura Anne Gilman: Website<\/span><\/a> \/ Twitter<\/span><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Heart of Briar: Amazon<\/span><\/a> \/ B&N<\/span><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Soul of Fire: Amazon<\/span><\/a> \/ B&N<\/span><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I love Laura Anne Gilman not merely because she is an excellent writer but because she also delivers unto writers excellent writing advice — advice that is practical and wise and comes from a place of actual experience, not just, you know, from the peaks of Made-Shit-Up Mountain. Here she talks about her next two […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-20283","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"hentry","6":"category-theramble","8":"no-featured-image"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pv7MR-5h9","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20283","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20283"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20283\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20285,"href":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20283\/revisions\/20285"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20283"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20283"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20283"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}