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truepennyQ: I've never encountered "tarquin" before, so I tried searching it out without much luck (ancient Roman leader or someting like that? a rapist?). In this world, does it mean "sadist," "top," "dominant," all of the above, or something I missed entirely?
A: "Tarquin" comes from Sextus Tarquinius, the rapist of one of the paradigmatic Roman women, Lucretia. (Paradigmatic Roman women always choose death over dishonor.) Shakespeare's narrative poem, "The Rape of Lucrece" is where I got that specific shortening from.
In Mélusine, tarquins are dom(me)s and martyrs are subs. Because of the particular social construction of sexuality in their culture, tarquins are generally sadists and martyrs are generally masochists. (Please note that I am not saying that I think all dom(mes) are sadists or vice versa.)
Q: What will be your next novel project and will it be a stand-alone or a series?
A: I don't know what the next project will be yet, but it will definitely be a stand-alone.
Q: What made you decide to use a third narrator in The Mirador and again in Corambis?
A: Um. It seemed like a good idea at the time. This series is full of those, generally followed by the notation, NEVER DO THIS AGAIN.
Q: What is the most commonly expressed perception of these books, the stories or characters or relationships therein, which makes you grit your teeth?
A: I'm going to admit that it irks the hell out of me when people fail to notice that "Milly-Fox" is not an affectionate nickname. Mildmay specifically says he hates it, and he only calls himself that as a put-down. Also, seriously, anything Kolkhis comes up with? NOT A PLUS.
Q: Do you think you'll ever revisit the characters of the DoL series?
A: Somewhere well down the line, there will be a story about Cardenio Richey, a serial killer in Mélusine, and what happened to Vey Coruscant's copy of Artemisia de Charon's Principia Caeli. At the moment, I don't even know how those things go together, just that they do.
Q: You mentioned, I think in your Locus interview, that fantasy doesn't generally handle the issue of class well (or even at all). I couldn't agree more, and I really really like the way you deal with the subject in your novels. What do you think accounts for the way you treat class in your books?
A: That is an excellent question, and I don't know if I have an equally excellent answer. Part of it, I think, is the stuff I talk about here. The social conditions of my childhood made me aware of class and specifically aware of it as a system of inequalities. Then, of course, the advanced degrees in English meant I inevitably gained a familiarity with Marxism and Marxist analysis. Marxism is not so successful as a political system, but as an analytical tool? It is INCREDIBLY helpful.
I didn't set out intentionally to write about class issues in these books; I just looked up one day and there it was. I couldn't undo it if I wanted to, and I wouldn't undo it if I could.
Q: Corambis is the last book in the Doctrine of Labyrinths series, but have you considered writing other novels that take place in the same world? (Either in a different time or place than DoL) I ask because the world seems to have many rich histories, and I imagine that such histories would also spawn wonderful stories.
A: See above re: Cardenio. *g* I'm unlikely to go write books set in, for instance, the Lucretian Empire, or in the Myrian Mountains or what have you. No interest from the backbrain. I might come up with stories that demand those settings, but that's different and unpredictable.
Q: Being active in the art community, I've periodically come across fanart for DoL - I'm curious as to what you think of fanart of your characters and world.
A: I'm thrilled to death that people bother.
Q: A week is seven days, and our numerical system is based on ten. A decad is ten days, and the Lower City's numerical system is based on seven. Coincidence? Also, what inspired you to make a secondary numerical system, on top of the wizard's way of couting? Was there originally just one, but you put the Wizard's version in to help the reader, or vice versa (to world-build, or...?) And why seven? (etc etc etc)
And, can you give a breif explanation of the Lower City's numerical system?
A: The decad, along with the rest of the Lower City calendar, is stolen from the French Revolutionary calendar. (I believe I made up the word "decad," but I wouldn't swear to it.) Counting indictions in groups of seven is stolen from the Byzantine calendar. (I think, if I'm remembering correctly, there was also a method of grouping by fives, but it's been a while.) I combined the two and decided, for reasons that are now lost in the dim and distant past, that since seven was clearly sacred, it would be far more culturally pervasive.
A septad is seven of something. The Lower City tends to group things by sevens, rather than by fives or tens. An indiction is a year. Seven indictions is a septad. Seven septads is a Great Septad. This is one of those "seemed like a good idea at the time" things that I wouldn't do again, and I didn't expect it to be so difficult for people to figure out, either.
Q: I know you have plotted the story for 15 years, but as the books got published one by one, did you change your directions or make modifications based on readers' responses? Do you write books to tell stories you want to tell regardless what the readers think or to tell stories you think the readers want to read? Is it important to you that your stories please readers?
A: Okay, first of all you have to understand the lag time in publishing. I had already turned in The Virtu by the time Mélusine saw print. And because of the order in which I wrote drafts, The Mirador was already plotted out and largely complete. (And doing anything to that plot structure was like trying to turn a porcupine inside out without puncturing its skin.) So even if I'd wanted to play chameleon, I really didn't have either time or space.
Also, readers' responses are the opposite of unanimous. On everything. So if I'd changed what I was doing in response to what one reader wanted, I would have disappointed or infuriated five others. For five different reasons.
My first responsibility is to tell stories that I love and am proud of. Obviously, since I'm trying to make a living as a writers, I also want readers to enjoy my stories, so that they will spend money on them. I also want readers to enjoy my stories, because that's the point. Thus far, my rule of thumb (which seems to be working) has been that if it's something I'd enjoy reading, other people will enjoy reading it, too.
Q: Are you surprised by readers' reactions to the sexual tension between Felix and Midmay? They are mostly positive based on the reviews I read. Is this what you expected? Some call the books "slash" because of this. Do you mind your books being labled as such?
A: Starting at the back and working forward: I think--because I am a trained professional literary critic and genre theorist--that the word "slash" should be used to mean something which subverts a canonical text (using "text" here very loosely) by means of a homoerotic relationship. Because that's a very cool thing for which we otherwise don't have a word. My books can't be slash, because they're canon. But if people write stories in which Mildmay and Felix have sex (and I'm sure they already have), then those stories are slash, because canonically, Mildmay is (a.) heterosexual and (b.) not sexually interested in Felix anyway.
So I do mind my books being called slash, but not because I think they're somehow superior to slash. I mind because I think they aren't slash, and I think the distinction is worth preserving.
Of course, many slash readers and writers doubtless disagree with me, and that's okay, too.
As I said in an earlier Q&A, I introduced Felix's attraction to Mildmay because it was the worst thing I could think of to do to them, and also because, given Felix's damage, it was inevitable. I myself do not view it positively. But, as I also said in an earlier Q&A, I don't get to micromanage people's responses to my books.
I've been surprised by a lot of things about the reception of my books. For one, I never expected Mildmay to be as popular as he is.
[To ask a question, go here.]
A: "Tarquin" comes from Sextus Tarquinius, the rapist of one of the paradigmatic Roman women, Lucretia. (Paradigmatic Roman women always choose death over dishonor.) Shakespeare's narrative poem, "The Rape of Lucrece" is where I got that specific shortening from.
In Mélusine, tarquins are dom(me)s and martyrs are subs. Because of the particular social construction of sexuality in their culture, tarquins are generally sadists and martyrs are generally masochists. (Please note that I am not saying that I think all dom(mes) are sadists or vice versa.)
Q: What will be your next novel project and will it be a stand-alone or a series?
A: I don't know what the next project will be yet, but it will definitely be a stand-alone.
Q: What made you decide to use a third narrator in The Mirador and again in Corambis?
A: Um. It seemed like a good idea at the time. This series is full of those, generally followed by the notation, NEVER DO THIS AGAIN.
Q: What is the most commonly expressed perception of these books, the stories or characters or relationships therein, which makes you grit your teeth?
A: I'm going to admit that it irks the hell out of me when people fail to notice that "Milly-Fox" is not an affectionate nickname. Mildmay specifically says he hates it, and he only calls himself that as a put-down. Also, seriously, anything Kolkhis comes up with? NOT A PLUS.
Q: Do you think you'll ever revisit the characters of the DoL series?
A: Somewhere well down the line, there will be a story about Cardenio Richey, a serial killer in Mélusine, and what happened to Vey Coruscant's copy of Artemisia de Charon's Principia Caeli. At the moment, I don't even know how those things go together, just that they do.
Q: You mentioned, I think in your Locus interview, that fantasy doesn't generally handle the issue of class well (or even at all). I couldn't agree more, and I really really like the way you deal with the subject in your novels. What do you think accounts for the way you treat class in your books?
A: That is an excellent question, and I don't know if I have an equally excellent answer. Part of it, I think, is the stuff I talk about here. The social conditions of my childhood made me aware of class and specifically aware of it as a system of inequalities. Then, of course, the advanced degrees in English meant I inevitably gained a familiarity with Marxism and Marxist analysis. Marxism is not so successful as a political system, but as an analytical tool? It is INCREDIBLY helpful.
I didn't set out intentionally to write about class issues in these books; I just looked up one day and there it was. I couldn't undo it if I wanted to, and I wouldn't undo it if I could.
Q: Corambis is the last book in the Doctrine of Labyrinths series, but have you considered writing other novels that take place in the same world? (Either in a different time or place than DoL) I ask because the world seems to have many rich histories, and I imagine that such histories would also spawn wonderful stories.
A: See above re: Cardenio. *g* I'm unlikely to go write books set in, for instance, the Lucretian Empire, or in the Myrian Mountains or what have you. No interest from the backbrain. I might come up with stories that demand those settings, but that's different and unpredictable.
Q: Being active in the art community, I've periodically come across fanart for DoL - I'm curious as to what you think of fanart of your characters and world.
A: I'm thrilled to death that people bother.
Q: A week is seven days, and our numerical system is based on ten. A decad is ten days, and the Lower City's numerical system is based on seven. Coincidence? Also, what inspired you to make a secondary numerical system, on top of the wizard's way of couting? Was there originally just one, but you put the Wizard's version in to help the reader, or vice versa (to world-build, or...?) And why seven? (etc etc etc)
And, can you give a breif explanation of the Lower City's numerical system?
A: The decad, along with the rest of the Lower City calendar, is stolen from the French Revolutionary calendar. (I believe I made up the word "decad," but I wouldn't swear to it.) Counting indictions in groups of seven is stolen from the Byzantine calendar. (I think, if I'm remembering correctly, there was also a method of grouping by fives, but it's been a while.) I combined the two and decided, for reasons that are now lost in the dim and distant past, that since seven was clearly sacred, it would be far more culturally pervasive.
A septad is seven of something. The Lower City tends to group things by sevens, rather than by fives or tens. An indiction is a year. Seven indictions is a septad. Seven septads is a Great Septad. This is one of those "seemed like a good idea at the time" things that I wouldn't do again, and I didn't expect it to be so difficult for people to figure out, either.
Q: I know you have plotted the story for 15 years, but as the books got published one by one, did you change your directions or make modifications based on readers' responses? Do you write books to tell stories you want to tell regardless what the readers think or to tell stories you think the readers want to read? Is it important to you that your stories please readers?
A: Okay, first of all you have to understand the lag time in publishing. I had already turned in The Virtu by the time Mélusine saw print. And because of the order in which I wrote drafts, The Mirador was already plotted out and largely complete. (And doing anything to that plot structure was like trying to turn a porcupine inside out without puncturing its skin.) So even if I'd wanted to play chameleon, I really didn't have either time or space.
Also, readers' responses are the opposite of unanimous. On everything. So if I'd changed what I was doing in response to what one reader wanted, I would have disappointed or infuriated five others. For five different reasons.
My first responsibility is to tell stories that I love and am proud of. Obviously, since I'm trying to make a living as a writers, I also want readers to enjoy my stories, so that they will spend money on them. I also want readers to enjoy my stories, because that's the point. Thus far, my rule of thumb (which seems to be working) has been that if it's something I'd enjoy reading, other people will enjoy reading it, too.
Q: Are you surprised by readers' reactions to the sexual tension between Felix and Midmay? They are mostly positive based on the reviews I read. Is this what you expected? Some call the books "slash" because of this. Do you mind your books being labled as such?
A: Starting at the back and working forward: I think--because I am a trained professional literary critic and genre theorist--that the word "slash" should be used to mean something which subverts a canonical text (using "text" here very loosely) by means of a homoerotic relationship. Because that's a very cool thing for which we otherwise don't have a word. My books can't be slash, because they're canon. But if people write stories in which Mildmay and Felix have sex (and I'm sure they already have), then those stories are slash, because canonically, Mildmay is (a.) heterosexual and (b.) not sexually interested in Felix anyway.
So I do mind my books being called slash, but not because I think they're somehow superior to slash. I mind because I think they aren't slash, and I think the distinction is worth preserving.
Of course, many slash readers and writers doubtless disagree with me, and that's okay, too.
As I said in an earlier Q&A, I introduced Felix's attraction to Mildmay because it was the worst thing I could think of to do to them, and also because, given Felix's damage, it was inevitable. I myself do not view it positively. But, as I also said in an earlier Q&A, I don't get to micromanage people's responses to my books.
I've been surprised by a lot of things about the reception of my books. For one, I never expected Mildmay to be as popular as he is.
[To ask a question, go here.]
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Date: 2008-08-27 11:34 am (UTC)