February 24th, 2010
• • Natter, On Writing
Shamelessly mooching an idea from one of the Amazon discussion forums, in which user J. E. Johnson defined epic fantasy with this list:
I would say in order for a story to be considered ‘epic’ to me, it would have to have the following elements:
1. A multiple book series
2. A quest of some sort that must be fulfilled
3. A main character who must face dangers, overcome foes and somehow change throughout the series (either become a better person or become the villain)
4. A great evil, often times one that uses its several minions to challenge the protagonist
5. A cast of supporting characters who offer our struggling hero friendship, support, laughter and sometimes sacrifice
6. (optional but highly recommended) A journey across a great landscape to take on earlier mentioned evil
I know, sounds rather cliche, but it doesn’t have to be on a grand scale. Some stories I consider epic: LOTR of course, the ‘Eragon’ trilogy, the ‘Green Rider’ series by Kristen Britain, the ‘Tiger and Del’ series by Jennifer Roberson and even Emily Rodda’s ‘Deltora Quest’ series :D.
Johnson is shilling an epic fantasy of her own — nothing wrong with that, we’re all shilling stuff here — so I do wonder whether this has informed her list (i.e., maybe she’s defining epic fantasy this way because that’s the kind of epic fantasy she’s written). In any case, it’s not at all how I would define epic fantasy, personally.
I don’t think it has to cover multiple books, for one thing. I would consider Hope Mirrlees’ Lud-in-the-Mist to be a perfect example of a one-volume epic, or Peter Beagle’s The Last Unicorn. Or to use a more recent and atypical example, Stephen King’s The Stand (which, granted, was big enough that it could have been published as multiple volumes). I don’t think a quest is necessary, either, nor do I think the antagonist — if there is one, because I’m not sure even that’s required — needs minions to impede the protagonist. I think secondary characters can exist for purposes other than just to support the protagonist — and since Johnson uses the word “hero”, I think that protag can be male or female. And I do, absolutely, believe that a grand scale is necessary. I think that’s what makes something “epic”.
But it occurs to me that my tastes are weird. Continue reading ›
February 23rd, 2010
• • 100K, Contests, Interview
The blog tour goes to two places today, folks — first down to Nashville, where I’m in the author spotlight with the Nashville Examiner, where I got a little philosophical during the interview:
So does Jemisin hope that her novel offers a specific message to the reader? “No. Honestly, I think that artists have a responsibility to write whatever is in their soul or head and then stop. Then, it’s up to the reader to draw whatever they want out of it. As far as I am concerned reading is the ultimate interactive experience. The writer gives the words, but there is only so far you can go from there. The reader has to engage with their own understanding and background. I write purely for myself. I write because there are images and voices and characters in my head and I want to get them out. I do it for my own entertainment, and I don’t expect my readers to see the same things.”
Then we shift over to Number One Novels, a site that focuses on debut authors, where they’ve done an interview with me paired with a giveaway contest! (You’ve got ’til the end of the week, note!) I usually try to say something different in every interview, even if it’s the same question I’ve answered in other interviews. Dunno how well I succeeded, but check it out:
NON: I think that names say a lot about a person, especially a fictional person. How did you decide on your protagonist’s full name? Did you have any other names that were in the running?
NKJ: Actually, I usually just pick random sounds! (Gotta love writing fantasy…)
…Not sure what that says about me, actually, but let’s just not think about that, okay?
These folks are helping me spread the word about 100K, so please help me repay them by going over to their site and posting a comment or two! Thanks!
February 22nd, 2010
• • 100K, Pimping
That’s right. It’s launch week! In three days The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms will be officially published. It seems weird to say that, given all the reviews and interviews and such, and the fact that lots of people have gotten their preorders, etc., delivered early. But I can tell you honestly that I’ve been stopping into bookstores all over New York City, hoping for the atavistic thrill of finally seeing
a book, with my name on it, on a bookstore shelf
but I haven’t found it anywhere. Because officially, it’s not out, and some bookstores actually, I don’t know, follow instructions or something. Go figure.
But all this changes on Thursday. On Thursday, I officially become a Published Author. And The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms will be available on bookstore shelves everywhere. In the English-speaking world, anyway. Dunno when the German, French, or Polish editions are coming out. (Oh, yeah, and the book has sold to a Polish publisher! More on that later.)
Anyway, people have said to me, “Nora, I like your book! I would like to spread the joy that is
a book, with your name on it, not necessarily on a bookstore shelf
…so how can I help?” Well, here are some suggestions!
- Buy the book.* (Please. Mama’s got student loans to pay.)
- Read the book. (This is kind of necessary for the next step.)
- If you like the book, tell everyone you know. This includes everyone on Goodreads, Library Thing, and all the retail bookseller sites, especially if they let you post reviews. (The Amazon “post your own review” feature is active now, BTW.)
- Under the category of “tell everyone you know”, blog about the book. You’d be surprised at how useful word-of-mouth is to authors.
- *If you cannot afford the book, that’s OK. Put in a request for it at your local library. Readers often think this won’t help authors, but it does! The more requests a library receives for a given book, the more likely that library is to order more copies of the book. More copies = sales for me, and you get to read it for free. Everyone wins! (Then please tell everyone about the book, blog about it, etc.)
Don’t forget, BTW, that I’m running a contest for people to send silly photos of themselves with the book. Contest ends February 25th! You could win an advance copy of book 2 of the Inheritance Trilogy, The Broken Kingdoms!
February 20th, 2010
• • 100K
I’ve gotten a few questions lately from readers about how to pronounce the names in The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms. The truth is, I don’t care how you pronounce them; it’s fiction, it’s not like any real people will be offended. But I know some people like to be precise, so I’ll share how I’ve been pronouncing them:
- Yeine: YAY-neh (Yes, two syllables. This seems to be the biggest point of confusion.)
- Viraine: vih-RAYN
- Nahadoth: NA-ha-doth
- Sieh: see-ay (no particular emphasis on either syllable)
- Kurue: KOO-roo-ay, rolled “r”
- Zhakkarn: jah-KARN (I prefer using the Mandarin pronunciation of the “zh”, though I don’t always get it right myself. Just sounds prettier.)
- Itempas: ee-tem-pahs (no particular emphasis)
- Enefa: EH-neh-fah
- Dekarta: deh-KAR-tah
- Scimina: sih-MEE-nah
- Relad: reh-LAHD
- T’vril: Tuh-VRIL (yes, I know there should be like a glottal stop there, but it’s a PITA to pronounce, so I don’t)
- Ras Onchi: RAHS ON-chee
- Wohi Ubm: WO-hee OO-bum
- Gemd: GEH-mid
- Shahar: shah-HAR
- Kinneth: kih-NETH
- Arameri: ah-rah-MEH-ree
And no, none of the names mean anything, and I didn’t consult a linguist to make the languages internally consistent, and I’m aware that some of the patterns of pronunciation contradict each other. Some of this is because the book is set in a multicultural society; that list of characters represents at least 7 different cultures, including that of the gods themselves (remember, they have their own language), each with its own naming conventions, and the usual overlap between cultures with frequent close contact. Some of it, however, is because I just made them up.
February 19th, 2010
• • Shorts, Squeeage
::whew:: Been sitting on this for 2 days now; thought I was gonna blow up or something.
So, it’s official: I am on the Final Ballot for the Nebulas, for my short story “Non-Zero Probabilities” that ran in Clarkesworld last year.
I am beyond excited about this. Y’know how they say “being nominated is an honor in itself?” Well, it really is in this case. The nominations come from SFWA Associate and Active members, my professional peers; the top six nominees get onto the ballot. I’ve been nominated before, a couple of times, but never gotten this far. The next step is for SFWA Active members to vote on the six nominees in my category, and pick a single winner. So I’ve got a 1 in 6 chance of winning a Nebula now. Holy. Crap.
Even better: I’m up against some friends here, so I’m unlikely to feel bad even if I don’t win. Saladin Ahmed is in my writing group. Michael Burstein is a mentor; I met him back in Boston. Jim Kelly is too, though we don’t talk much; he was one of the instructors at Viable Paradise, the year I attended. And while I don’t know Will McIntosh or Kij Johnson personally, I’m proud as hell to be among them.
El mas mejor: (Been practicing my Spanish lately, sorry; “the best” or “best of all”) The whole slate of nominees is full of amazing writers. Go check it out.
So, squeeeeee!
February 18th, 2010
• • On Writing
I was re-reading a favorite novel lately, because its sequel is coming out soon and I wanted to refresh in preparation. Anyway, I was struck by the fact that it contained really good descriptions of several characters of color. So I thought that book — Griffin’s, below — deserved a shout-out, as do some others I’ve read that stuck in my mind. Which means — you guessed it — time for another post on describing characters of color! Other People’s PoC (OPPoC) Edition.
(Previous iterations here and here.)
As with the previous articles, this isn’t a claim or judgment on what’s right or wrong. In this case, they’re just descriptions of people of color in fiction I’ve read and liked. Also, I’m annotating this because good descriptions aren’t just a matter of picking the right adjectives; sometimes there are worldbuilding techniques or stylistic tricks involved.
Continue reading ›
February 17th, 2010
• • 100K, Interview
A loooooong interview with me (it took 4 days!) over at A Dribble of Ink. Lots and lots of stuff in that one, like why I use initials and why I hated unicorns as a little girl. Also links to a review of 100K; check it out!
ETA: Almost forgot — there are bigass spoilers in this interview, not just for 100K but the whole Inheritance Trilogy. You have been warned!
February 17th, 2010
• • Appearances, Conventions and Workshops
Since folks have asked, just wanted to share some of the stuff I’ll be up to in the next few months. I didn’t want to add an “Appearances” tab to the blog because I’m still a baby author, making baby-author steps and with a baby-author budget, so I’m concentrating events around the book’s launch and won’t be traveling far or often beyond that. Which means I won’t be at, say, Worldcon in Australia this year. (No slight on Australia; my wallet’s telling me no, but my body’s telling me yes… and the wallet wins, hands-down.) Won’t be doing Odyssey either, though I desperately wanted to since The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms is coming out in the UK as well. These are tough times. But here in the US I will be doing a few cons, and locally I’m going to be all over the place.
Note that this is only the next few months’ worth of stuff, BTW. Depending on finances and other factors, I may need to go back to fulltime work this summer. Ergo stuff like Readercon and World Fantasy, though I love both, are up in the air for now.
Anyway, here’s what is certain for the next month or so:
Continue reading ›
February 15th, 2010
• • 100K, Interview
This actually came out earlier this month, but I wanted to get permission from the folks at Romantic Times before I posted it, which I have now done. In the March 2010 issue, there’s a fantastic interview with me and another author, Lauren Oliver, about how living in Brooklyn is Teh Kewl. (Romantic Times itself is located in Brooklyn.) The interview won’t be posted online, so if you want to see it farreals you’ll need to go get yourself a copy of Romantic Times. Note that this article references the GOLD rating/review of The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms that ran in the February issue of RT.
It’s a fantastic interview, and I had a lot of fun with it! I love it when interviewers ask me interesting and unusual questions.
The .jpg is necessarily large (800K or so) so as to be readable; you are forewarned. Click on the thumbnail for a larger version!
February 13th, 2010
• • Orbitblog
…which I completely forgot to mention here. Bad Nora! No biscuit.
So I decided to get a little more “thinky” this time around, and talk about the process of creating a post-feminist character, in Yeine. Which I kind of did by accident, and involved some interesting contradictions:
The element in question is the background of my protagonist, Yeine Darr, who was born and raised in a matriarchal culture. I didn’t base this culture on any extant matriarchy (although if I had to slap a real-world label on her, Yeine’s home culture corresponds to that of the pre-Columbian Incans, who were probably matriarchal, though with vastly different customs). And since Yeine spends the bulk of the story amid the more patriarchal culture of her estranged relatives, readers don’t see much of Yeine’s homeland. But her upbringing does shape her character in interesting ways. Yeine’s a bit of a chauvanist, see.
The article finishes up by asking for other examples of post-feminist characters, and in fact a definition of post-feminism. Could use some comments over there, so I’m going to shut them off here. Go check it out!
