What is Epic Fantasy?

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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 […]

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Two, two, two interviews in one (post)

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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

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It’s February 22nd. Do you know what that means?

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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

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A Name Pronunciation Guide for 100K

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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

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Nebula Ballot!

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::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

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Describing Characters of Color 3, OPPoC

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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

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Blog Tour: Dribbledom?

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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!

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Appearances, next few months

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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,

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Romantic Times Interview

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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

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Whoops! New Post at Orbit Blog

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…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

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