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To all the people who want to read the false start to The Mirador: I am trying to think of a really really polite way to say, Oh HELL no.
Also, a reminder: many auctions at![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
con_or_bust end today, including mine.
Q: Did you consciously intend for Mavortian and Bernard to be a kind of warped reflection of Felix and Mildmay?
A: Yes. Or at least, once I figured out that they were half-brothers, I did.
Q: Corambis...as in the jumping spider?
A: Corambis as in the name of Polonius's character in Hamlet Q1.
Q: I know there's no map included in the Doctrine of Labyrinths books, but is there one in existence? Did you ever make one simply for your own reference?
A: There is a map of Mélusine.
Q: Did you ever reach a point while writing the Doctrine of Labyrinths, even in the very early years, where you just felt like giving up?
A: I started writing these books somewhere around 1993, when I was a sophomore in college. I was then and continued until May 2004 (i.e., after I'd sold Mélusine and The Virtu to Ace) to be a full-time student, first getting my B.A. with a double major, then doing UW-Madison's one-year English Lit. M.A. program, then working on my Ph.D. and--for several semesters--also teaching. I started writing and submitting short stories seriously in 2000. And I've always been a writer who has a lot of projects started simultaneously (this is not, btw, necessarily a virtue). So with the first three books (since I had a draft of The Mirador written before I sold Mélusine), if I was frustrated or stuck or just didn't feel like writing, I had plenty of other things to turn my attention to--and no reason I couldn't. Up until October 2003, when Ace said, "Yes, we will give you money for these stories," nobody but me cared whether I finished them or not. So there wasn't any angst about it.
Ironically, there were several moments during the writing of Corambis when I would have been pathetically grateful to be allowed to throw in the towel--or just to leave the fucking thing alone for a month or three--but at that point I had a deadline and a contract and three published books' worth of obligation to finish the story.
( spoilers for Corambis )
I'm going to combine two questions here, and then cut-tag for length:
( questions about fanfiction )
Q: In the real world, the colder a place is, the shorter the people living there are. However, it is the opposite in the world of Melusine, where Troians are higher than Marathines, and Marathines are higher than Colaxan. Is there any reason for that?
A: 1. Is this true? I certainly don't have the knowledge or training to argue it, but I can think of counter-examples.
2. Troia and Mélusine are pretty much in the same latitude, and Caloxa is much further north (and therefore, because I am a northern hemisphere writer, colder) than either.
However, that makes it look like I actually thought about the issue in those terms, when in fact Troians are taller than Marathines because Troians are pseudo-elves, and Caloxans are slightly shorter on average because of the admixture of Usaran genes, and the Usara are pseudo-dwarves.
And we end today's installment with another repeated question:
Q: What was the story behind the client who wanted Coruscant's copy of Artemisia de Charon's Principia Caeli? For that matter, do you even know, or was it just a means to an end in this particular case?
A: Someday I will figure this out and will write the story about Cardenio Richey, Vey Coruscant's copy of the Principia Caeli, and a serial killer stalking the Lower City (c'mon, you all knew Mélusine would have to spawn a Jack the Ripper eventually). So, yes, it does point toward something else, but I don't yet know what the something else is.
[Ask your question(s) here.]
Also, a reminder: many auctions at
con_or_bust end today, including mine.Q: Did you consciously intend for Mavortian and Bernard to be a kind of warped reflection of Felix and Mildmay?
A: Yes. Or at least, once I figured out that they were half-brothers, I did.
Q: Corambis...as in the jumping spider?
A: Corambis as in the name of Polonius's character in Hamlet Q1.
Q: I know there's no map included in the Doctrine of Labyrinths books, but is there one in existence? Did you ever make one simply for your own reference?
A: There is a map of Mélusine.
Q: Did you ever reach a point while writing the Doctrine of Labyrinths, even in the very early years, where you just felt like giving up?
A: I started writing these books somewhere around 1993, when I was a sophomore in college. I was then and continued until May 2004 (i.e., after I'd sold Mélusine and The Virtu to Ace) to be a full-time student, first getting my B.A. with a double major, then doing UW-Madison's one-year English Lit. M.A. program, then working on my Ph.D. and--for several semesters--also teaching. I started writing and submitting short stories seriously in 2000. And I've always been a writer who has a lot of projects started simultaneously (this is not, btw, necessarily a virtue). So with the first three books (since I had a draft of The Mirador written before I sold Mélusine), if I was frustrated or stuck or just didn't feel like writing, I had plenty of other things to turn my attention to--and no reason I couldn't. Up until October 2003, when Ace said, "Yes, we will give you money for these stories," nobody but me cared whether I finished them or not. So there wasn't any angst about it.
Ironically, there were several moments during the writing of Corambis when I would have been pathetically grateful to be allowed to throw in the towel--or just to leave the fucking thing alone for a month or three--but at that point I had a deadline and a contract and three published books' worth of obligation to finish the story.
( spoilers for Corambis )
I'm going to combine two questions here, and then cut-tag for length:
( questions about fanfiction )
Q: In the real world, the colder a place is, the shorter the people living there are. However, it is the opposite in the world of Melusine, where Troians are higher than Marathines, and Marathines are higher than Colaxan. Is there any reason for that?
A: 1. Is this true? I certainly don't have the knowledge or training to argue it, but I can think of counter-examples.
2. Troia and Mélusine are pretty much in the same latitude, and Caloxa is much further north (and therefore, because I am a northern hemisphere writer, colder) than either.
However, that makes it look like I actually thought about the issue in those terms, when in fact Troians are taller than Marathines because Troians are pseudo-elves, and Caloxans are slightly shorter on average because of the admixture of Usaran genes, and the Usara are pseudo-dwarves.
And we end today's installment with another repeated question:
Q: What was the story behind the client who wanted Coruscant's copy of Artemisia de Charon's Principia Caeli? For that matter, do you even know, or was it just a means to an end in this particular case?
A: Someday I will figure this out and will write the story about Cardenio Richey, Vey Coruscant's copy of the Principia Caeli, and a serial killer stalking the Lower City (c'mon, you all knew Mélusine would have to spawn a Jack the Ripper eventually). So, yes, it does point toward something else, but I don't yet know what the something else is.
[Ask your question(s) here.]
