Q&A 6

[truepenny]

Just for the record, I'll keep answering questions as long as people keep asking them. Also, if you want to ask more than one question, that is TOTALLY okay.

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Q: if you HAD to pick a single pov to write the DoL, which of the protagonist's would it be and why? How about someone else's?

A: First of all, if I only had one PoV, they would be radically different books, since the reason I have multiple PoVs in the first place is because (a.) no one protagonist sees enough of the plot for it to make sense and (b.) each protagonist has his or her own story, although Felix and Mildmay's become progressively intertwined. (That may, come to think of it, be part of the reason why books 3 and 4 spawned third narrators: so that we could have more than one story line.)

However, that said, in my heart, these books belong to Felix. I realize that many of my readers will passionately disagree, and that's okay.

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Q: Are you having fun?

A: Yeah, actually. I like my life.

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Q: What is your favorite thing about the book?

A: The mammoth.

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Q: Which was your favorite of the series to write, and which had the most fun moments for you?

A: As the man in the Charles Addams cartoon says, "You see, children, I hate you both in quite different ways."

I loved writing the bits in The Virtu and The Mirador where we get to go wandering around in the abandoned levels of the Mirador.

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Q: In a cage match, who wins, Malkar Gennadion or Vey Coruscant?

A: Malkar. This question required even less thought than the one about the coolest place I've ever been. *g*

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Q: Is there a solid, static ending? As in, not open-ended?

A: This one actually puzzles me a good deal, because the only way to have a static ending is for everyone to die. (Which, no, is not how Corambis ends--I consider it rankest cheating to kill a first-person narrator.) However, I did my best to resolve all of the major issues of the series and to make the book satisfying in and of itself.

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Q: I was wondering if you have any examples of what Mildmay and Felix's accents sound like. For Mildmay I have a pretty distinct voice in my head, but I don't have one for Felix.

As I've said before, Mildmay's dialect is based on the mid-South dialect of the area I grew up in, specifically--especially for the obscenities--the kids I went to high school with. (C'mon, didn't everybody swear like a Hell's Angel in high school?) Felix (and everybody else in the Mirador, except people like Vida and Thaddeus who are foreigners, of course) should sound like an upper class American--like Hollywood actors sound if they aren't deliberately assuming An Accent. When I do readings, I code-switch between Mildmay's accent and, for Felix, my normal way of speaking.

Felix does, very occasionally, slip.

And, yes, if I ever get the technology for podcasts, I will put a reading up on my site.

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[To ask your question, go here.]

Comments

[sistercoyote.livejournal.com]

Which, no, is not how Corambis ends--I consider it rankest cheating to kill a first-person narrator

Unless, of course, it such a death is done as in American Beauty, where the narrator tells you up front they're going to die.

In my phenomenally not-humble opinion, of course.

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

That's not killing a first person narrator--that's having a first person narrator who's dead. *g*

[sistercoyote.livejournal.com]

Point. :)

[maki-to13.livejournal.com]

1. As much as I absolutely adore Mildmay, I also feel like the books are more Felix's. It'd be interesting to see more of his point of view on, say, Mildmay and Mehitabel's relationship

4. I'll bet that was a lot of fun to get into. I loved the thing with the ghost Felix helps...I think in book 3, because of the reference back to the first book. And the whole mystery with Amaryllis Cordelia, though I had to write out every new fact we got on her because it was definitely mind-boggling, was a cool part of the story.

7. Thank you for telling us. When I first started I picture the different classes of British accents, but once I tried to read it out loud it just didn't flow right. But that makes so much more sense.
It seems to me that Mildmay has similar speech patterns to Ennis Del Mar from Brokeback Mountain (even though Ennis is from Wyoming), the whole mumbly, drawly, slurry thing he has going on. Am I totally off?

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

I have not actually seen Brokeback Mountain*, so I can't comment.

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*Despite my love for Renaissance tragedy, in general I don't enjoy stories with sad endings and will not watch/read them for fun. It's a character flaw. And, no, I can't explain myself.

[maki-to13.livejournal.com]

Ahh yeah. I actually read the short story first because a friend of mine said it was good, but didn't forewarn me how sad it was. I watched the movie....mainly because I'd get attractive men kissing each other.

I'm sure there are YouTube clips of a scene or two.

[comrade-cat.livejournal.com]

I loved writing the bits in The Virtu and The Mirador where we get to go wandering around in the abandoned levels of the Mirador.

Those are some of my favourite bits! I was hoping for lots more of them in Corambis (oh well).

There's a whole subgenre of ancient tricky-magical gothy cities, like Melusine & like Tai-Tastigon in PC Hodgell, but I don't know any name for the subgenre. Since you are an Author, can you make up a really good one? :) Or at least a name for that type of archetype city?

[themadfish.livejournal.com]

"Mildmay's dialect is based on the mid-South dialect of the area I grew up in"

Yay! That's pretty much exactly how I imagined his accent. Well, an NC accent at least.

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

East Tennessee. Yeah. Close enough for government work.

[bookzombie.livejournal.com]

The answer to the first question is very interesting; it vaguely ties in with the idea that the hero and the protagonist are not necessarily the same person. It seems to me that Mildmay (gross generalisation alert!) tends to act more heroic (and is certainly easier to sympathise with) but Felix remains the protagonist.

To some extent it depends on whose agenda is being serviced by the story. While Mildmay goes off and does his own thing at various points, the story still primarily revolves around Felix's actions, issues and needs (a trivial comparison: in the final season of Farscape D'Argo is voted as captain of Moya, but it is still John's agenda that drives the plot).

[poodlerat.livejournal.com]

I'd argue that Farscape doesn't actually have any heroes, only protagonists and antagonists. The good guys' actions can be epic, but they rarely even try for heroism, and when they do, it usually leads to their worst tragedies or near-tragedies (Different Destinations, Peacekeeper Wars).

(Sorry, I cannot resist talking about Farscape.)

[bookzombie.livejournal.com]

That's okay, I'm always happy to talk Farscape as well!

I agree with what you are saying about heroes, though in fairness my point was that whatever happens John remains the protagonist (he's way too broken to be the hero.)

[poodlerat.livejournal.com]

No, I got that, and you're absolutely right. And it still works as a comparison for DoL, because like you said/implied above, Mildmay may have heroic impulses, like John, but a combination of bad luck and major psychological trauma prevents each of them from being a hero.

[poodlerat.livejournal.com]

However, that said, in my heart, these books belong to Felix.

I'm surprised to hear that, although now that I think about it, it makes sense--after all, it is Felix who mostly drives the plot. I've always thought of them as being about Mildmay. The books are told more from his perspective than Felix's, and I love him more, so I'm more invested in his story.

I loved reading about the abandoned levels of the Mirador. Part of the reason I like Mildmay so much is because I identify with his love of maps. I think he's the first character I've ever encountered who actually loves maps as much as I do. (Kind of how I love Archie Goodwin partly because he's the only adult character who drinks milk. Absurd but true.)

[(Anonymous)]

Hey, no question (yet anyways...) but I just finished "Mirador" and I LOVED it. I am faintly embarrassed to confess that several times I hugged the book--icky, god knows passed through how many hands library book that it was--in hopes that my hugs would reach Mildmay. Sometimes Felix too but more often than not Mildmay. I'm not sure what else to say that wouldn't come out hopelessly gushy and teeny-bopper-esque (you know...like Mildmay and Felix were pop stars...) so I'll just leave with a THANKS SO MUCH FOR THE WONDERFUL READ!

Emmy