My Interview with Peter de Jonge

Having read several well-written interview pieces in GQ, I would like to say I met novelist and journalist Peter de Jonge at a rooftop bar in Manhattan. I would like to describe the way he sips his beer (dropping the name of a trendy brew), the fit of his crisply tailored trousers and the fashionably random fall of hair over his forehead. But actually, I have no idea what he was wearing when I interviewed him, what his hairstyle was or what he was drinking at the time.

We didn’t meet at a rooftop bar. Next best thing: We “met,” in the social media sense of the word, via messages on Goodreads, where he spotted my review of his second solo novel, Buried on Avenue B, then graciously waited until I had gone back and read its predecessor, Shadows Still Remain. After accepting my honest criticism of his work, he even more graciously let me pelt him with interview questions via a series of emails.

So, for full disclosure, we didn’t have a face-to-face, back-and-forth conversation. After an exchange of Goodreads messages, I emailed him some questions and he emailed me some answers. Nevertheless, I think our exchange opens up an interesting vista on the life of a writer. Any impression, in the story that follows, that we sat down and chatted over cocktails is unintentional, and probably an artifact of my fantasy of doing what Peter de Jonge does.

De Jonge is the author of two “Darlene O’Hara” novels, featuring a hard-living New York City cop who makes Detective First Grade by solving a high-profile murder, and who specializes in doggedly pursuing the truth, going to the mat for the most vulnerable victims, and pushing back against authority including her own department’s chain of command. His other writing credits include articles in Manhattan Inc., Harper’s Bazaar, National Geographic and The New York Times Magazine, as well as four novels in which his author credit appears after that of James Patterson: Miracle at Augusta, Beach Road, The Beach House and Miracle on the 17th Green.

I gave Peter the option of skipping over questions he considered boring or impertinent; he took that option in the question I asked him about working with James Patterson. Enquiring minds will have to learn to live with disappointment.

The first I heard from Peter, he had just spotted my review of Buried on Goodreads, in which I quoted a paragraph that I found delightful. “I really appreciate your thoughtful reading of my novel and your enthusiasm for that opening paragraph of the Florida section,” he wrote in the kind of flattery of my critical perceptiveness that really draws me out. “That kind of reaction means a lot,” he said. “The Florida section was the first part of the book I handed in, and because it was late it was crucial that it make a good impression immediately.”

Later, Peter admitted that he probably spent too much time on that paragraph, “but I probably would have done it anyway because, like a lot of writers (I’m guessing here; I have not conducted a survey), I tend to spend a lot more time polishing something that is already OK than addressing the parts that are bad.”

In a later DM, he said, “I think your criticism of the novel is valid and it's something I'm keeping in mind with the book I'm working on now, which has elements of a crime novel.”

That must be a reference to the bit of my review in which I noted that a sense of closure eludes the sleuth in Buried, perhaps due to a lack of the stereotyped crime-thriller ending in which the good guy (or gal) looks the true face of evil in the eye – followed by a cathartic fit of violence. If I was a kiss-ass, I would hasten to say I meant that as a compliment. But with left-handed compliments like that, who needs criticism?

“I don't really think of myself as a crime novelist,” Peter explained, “and have a tendency to shy away from the most dependable satisfactions of the genre. Shadows Still Remain probably does a better job in that regard.”

I asked him to unpack this a bit. In reply, he confessed one of the challenges of his career: an inability to fully embrace whatever he is doing. “In my perverse way of looking at things,” he said, “I’m not so much a professional writer as someone who has proven quite a few times that I’m capable of being one. I’m just trying to make a point that this is something I can do, and having done it, I don’t see a lot of advantage of doing it again and again; and if you’re writing crime novels, publishers don’t have much enthusiasm unless you’re pounding out one a year.”

In college, De Jonge majored in English, writing some short stories for his senior thesis – “none of which prepared me in the slightest way for gainful employment,” he said. He graduated from Princeton University in 1977.

The first piece of writing he sold was a feature on a dart champion who owned a bar in Trenton, N.J. “I just went to his bar and interviewed him and then sold the story,” Peter recalled. “Getting your first writing job can be excruciatingly hard, but you don’t need anyone’s permission or approval to go and write a story, and if nothing else, it can help you get that first job.”

He worked a couple of years for a chain of Connecticut weeklies, then a year with the Associated Press, before quitting to look for a job as an advertising copywriter. “The idea,” he said, “was to find a relatively lucrative, cushy job that would enable me to write on the side, and that’s what I did.”

A year or two later, his profile of young, driven director’s rep Stavros Merjos got published in Manhattan Inc. “I spent several months on it and sent it in unsolicited and caused a minor sensation,” he said. “That led to an assignment for The New York Times Magazine and others.”

Any way of writing for a living, he said, is helpful for a novelist – “doing the best you can in a finite amount of time and sending it off.” He noted that magazine stories are more challenging in some ways because, “in addition to being surprising and entertaining and hopefully having something to say, they have to be true – or at least not clearly wrong.”

According to his online biography, de Jonge was working as a copywriter at J. Walter Thompson when Patterson, then an executive at the firm who was just establishing himself as a bestselling author, noticed his articles in the NYTM and NatGeo. “Instead of firing Peter for slacking on the job, he hired Peter to be the first of his many co-authors on the golf novel Miracle on the 17th Green,” the bio went on. After a few more collaborations, he struck out on his own.

I asked Peter whether he parks fiction and journalism in different parts of his headspace. “I don’t make a big distinction between my magazine writing and the fiction,” he said. “In both cases, my goals, pretentious as it sounds, were literary. Given a choice of paucities, I’ve always been more interested in a little glory than a little money. What gets more confusing, he added, is when the choice is between a lot of money and very little glory.”

Also, one of his motives for writing two crime novels was the hope that if they were a hit, there would be interest in a collection of his magazine work.

The biggest crossover between fiction and feature writing is the importance of a strong lead. “I have probably given up on reading more books on the first page than I’ve read – many of them highly praised – but then again, I’m kind of a hater,” he said.

By choosing crime fiction for his first solo flight as a novelist, De Jonge was able to approach the project like a reporter. “Before I had any idea of the story,” he said, “I spent several months hanging out and riding around with detectives in the 7th Precinct in lower Manhattan.”

He happened to know someone who was married to a former detective from that precinct, who offered to take Peter in and make introductions. In the process, De Jonge discovered an amusing fact: “There is such an entrenched fictional crime industry that all of these detectives had already spent time with a writer at one point or another. It was kind of embarrassing, and may be one of the reasons I don’t want to think of myself as a crime novelist.”

The starting point for the character development of Darlene O’Hara was an actual NYPD homicide detective. “One thing I was doing, when I was researching the book and hanging out with detectives, was looking for a hero or heroine,” said de Jonge, “and I eventually stumbled upon her.”

By her, he means NYPD Homicide Detective Donna Torres, according to that online bio. “Like Darlene, she had a son when she was a teenager and still managed to end her career as a first-grade homicide detective,” Peter explained. “That indicated just how smart and ambitious she was, while also revealing latent self-destructive tendencies, and I worked with both of those elements.”

Darlene’s colorful, rough-and-tumble background and her issues with authority at times make her a great sleuth, but they come at a cost. Peter commented, “Deep down, Darlene O’Hara knows that she is lucky as hell to have stumbled into one of the few vocations in America where the lack of a college education is not a deal breaker. Darlene is an extremely smart and hardworking detective, and she earned her spot among her overwhelmingly male colleagues. On the other hand, being white and Irish didn’t hurt, and like a lot of New York cops, she would not be quick to concede that point.”

As readers get to know Darlene during the two books, de Jonge said, her distinctive voice emerges naturally from conversations with other characters. “Writing dialogue can almost be fun,” he said, “because it really isn’t planned. One character says something, another responds; and unlike the rest of the book, I have no idea where it might lead.”

I asked Peter about his living situation as compared to Darlene. I’ll admit, it’s a weird question to put to a male author regarding a female character, but he answered it anyway. “I live on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, but when I came to New York after college, I lived in the East Village and it is still the neighborhood I am most attached to, and where I hang out on the rare occasions that I hang out. Unlike Darlene, I’m not much of a drinker, but I’ve been to all the bars she frequents and, for research purposes, I went to Milano’s one morning when it opened.”

Darlene has one adult son. Peter has two. “Like Darlene,” he said, “I have experienced the carefree pleasure of watching them sleep.”

Both crime novels have autobiographical touches, he admitted. “To a large degree, Darlene has been saddled with my personality and issues, etc. My current project is [more] overtly autobiographical.”

He didn’t want to say more than this about the book he’s working on now, except that readers should be able to look for it “hopefully quite soon.” As of now, he said, “there are no O’Hara stories in the pipeline,” but if “there was a groundswell of demand, I would probably write another. Once you have the characters, it can go on indefinitely, and by now the characters are very real to me and hopefully to readers.”

Darlene’s cop partner in the first book, who also helps her in the second, is a guy named Krekorian who, at least on Fantasticfiction.com, shares billing with her in the title of the “O’Hara & Krekorian” series. De Jonge said this is a misnomer, as Krekorian is a secondary character. “Nevertheless,” he added, “I have a great deal of fondness for Krekorian, who is not based on a cop, but an Armenian American friend who died in a plane crash.”

Peter said writing a crime novel is about managing the sequence of revelations. “The intelligent path, which I followed in the first book, is to start at the end and work backwards,” he said. “The much harder road, which I went down in the second, is to come up with an intriguing start and then try to figure out someplace for it to go.” As a result, he considers Shadows “a cleaner, tighter piece of entertainment” but believes that Buried is “hopefully … richer.”

“Writing is hard for me,” he said. “But it’s also a source of pride and satisfaction. From an early age, this is what I’ve wanted to do, and I’m very grateful that I’ve been lucky enough to do it and make my living at it.

“Some of that is really due to luck,” he added in what I would like to describe as a moment of O’Hara-like moodiness. But alas, the distance across the imaginary cocktail table between us was too wide for me to read his face.

PHOTO CREDIT: Peter de Jonge, a selfie shot while on assignment in Moscow(!)

My Interview with Cinda Williams Chima

EDIT: This interview was originally published on the MuggleNet Blog, in February. I held back from posting it here for a couple of silly reasons, including plans to do a bunch of other author interviews—plans that somehow didn't pan out.

MuggleNet thanks Cinda Chima, author of the "Heir Chronicles" and the "Seven Realms" novels, for graciously agreeing to let this star-struck reviewer interview her.

For those of you tuning in late, the "Heir Chronicles" is (so far) a trilogy consisting of the books The Warrior Heir, The Wizard Heir, and The Dragon Heir. Set in a variant of our present-day world, these books dramatize the conflict between five "guilds" of magically gifted people, known as Weir. Wizards and warriors are only the tip of the iceberg in a teen fantasy filled with danger, battles, betrayal, and sacrifice. Readers of all ages can enjoy this exciting series, as my parents can bear witness—once I started reading it to them, they couldn't get enough! As you will see below, there is more to come in this series.

The "Seven Realms" series, meanwhile, boasts four books to-date: The Demon King, The Exiled Queen, The Gray Wolf Throne, and The Crimson Crown. It is an exciting fantasy world where so much depends on the balance of power between the Queen of the Fells, the wizards, and the upland clans who create the magical focus-pieces on which the wizards depend. In the two books I have read so far, I have been captivated by the author's flair for world-building, to say nothing of the passionate princess, the dangerous street lord, the ambitious young wizard, and the other characters who are caught up in a web of conflicting agendas, loyalties, grudges, and bids for power.

If you want more information about these series and their creator, visit her website, or her blog, or her page on FaceBook, or her GoodReads profile, or her Twitter feed—@cindachima. And now, with a final "thank you" to Cinda Williams Chima, our interview...

RF: What do you think is unique about the approach to magic you take in your books?

CWC: This is going to sound odd coming from a fantasist, but the magical element in my books is subtle. Nobody is changing cats into lamps or people into cats, a la Harry Potter (Don’t get me wrong—I love this aspect of Potter World.) Magic in both the Seven Realms and the Heir Chronicles is a kind of energy—a catalyst—produced by gifted people and harnessed by those with the training to do it. In the Heir Chronicles, there are five magical guilds, each with a specific scope of power. In the Seven Realms, wizards produce energy that must be accumulated in flashcraft, or amulets, in order to have enough to do something worthwhile. Thus their power is limited by the Clans—artisans who produce flashcraft.

To me, magic is just one more tool in the writer’s kit, another way to add conflict to story. But when readers find magic in my books, it usually comes from the characters.

You can find more information about the characters, worlds, and magical systems in both series here and here.

RF: How would you describe your ideal reader for the "Heir" and "Seven Realms" series? What kind of person do you think would be most likely to "get it"?

CWC: The Heir Chronicles is contemporary fantasy, so it’s a little more accessible to non-fantasy readers. Readers learn about the fantasy systems alongside the protagonists, who are high school students in a small town in Ohio. There’s less world-building, since most people are familiar with the Midwest (except, perhaps, for New Yorkers.) This series has been popular with boys, which has garnered a lot of attention because boys tend to veer off into non-fiction in the teen years. The sweet spot for the Heir Chronicles is middle school, but I hear from readers ranging from late elementary to deployed US military.

The Seven Realms is high fantasy, set in the long ago and far away, so it is more accessible to committed fantasy readers. The romance element is stronger, so it seems to attract more female readers, including adult women. The readership is older, ranging from middle school through adult. In fact, it was published as adult fiction in some markets overseas.

RF: What is the likelihood that you will someday add more books to the "Seven Realms" quartet?

CWC: Very likely, if the popularity of the books warrant it. My YA series is actually kind of a prequel to an adult high fantasy series called The Star-Marked Warder, that I began, and never finished. Many of the teen characters in the Seven Realms series appear as adults in SMW. So I sort of have a 500,000-word head start, though I’m sure many, many of those words need revision.

RF: (By way of updating your FAQ): Do you have more precise release dates now for "The Sorcerer Heir" and "The Enchanter Heir?" How far along are you in writing them?

CWC: The Enchanter Heir, the next book in the Heir Chronicles, is set for release October 22, 2013 (need to update that web page!) I just submitted revisions to my editor. The cover reveal is scheduled later this month (February, 2013).

RF: Without spoiling too much, what can you tell us to expect in these upcoming books?

CWC: It’s been interesting (and challenging) to return to the Heir Chronicles after a four-year break. There’s a clamor of reader expectations echoing in my ears, and I’m not the same writer that I was, then. Hopefully, that means I’m improving.

I tied things up pretty well at the end of The Dragon Heir, and so I’ve had to pick those knots apart and create more trouble for my characters. My working tagline: Peace doesn’t work for some people.

The Enchanter Heir begins about a year after The Dragon Heir ends. It focuses on new characters, as I’ve done in the past, but the familiar characters play an important role. The main characters are Weir savants—members of the Weirguilds whose heartstones have been, er, modified.

RF: What are the chances of further "Heir" titles beyond these two upcoming books?

CWC: I don’t like to close doors.

RF: Would you share any "casting dreams" regarding movies that might be made from your books?

CWC: I’m so ignorant of popular culture. It’s a huge joke at my house. I often get suggestions from readers, though. Sometimes I think it works well to choose relative unknowns, so that they can “disappear” into the roles they play.

RF: Are you planning any new books outside your two established series? If so, will they be a similar kind of book, or a new departure for you?

CWC: Just taking it one book at a time, thank you. Two books in the pipeline, then we’ll see.

RF: How do you manage your time from day to day, especially when you are writing a book?

CWC: I used to be a spectacular time manager—I published three novels while working full time as a department head in a health care system. I’ve found that once your books are published, there’s a whole other job—promotion and interaction with readers. I love that a lot, but it is sometimes difficult to juggle everything. I’ve written a book a year since 2006—and, as you know, my books are long ones.

The main thing I do when I’m working hard on a novel is not to get online until after lunch. My best writing time is first thing in the morning. So I write until 1 or 2 p.m., work out, have lunch, and then get into email. I find that email and social media take whatever time you give them.

RF: Do you follow a checklist of goals to achieve in each day's writing, or in every chapter? If so, what can you share about it?

CWC: Oh, no no no no no. I once appeared with another writer who used a spreadsheet in planning for his novels. I got up, then, and said, "There are many ways to write fiction. You have to find what works for you."

RF: Do you ever take inspiration from specific pieces of art, music, etc.? Do you have anything like that in mind while you write? Or could you recommend a brief playlist to go with one of your books?

CWC: I do like to listen to music while I write. For one thing, it shuts out the conversations around me when I write at the coffee shop. I favor blues, bluegrass, folk, and some country, e.g. Alison Krauss. I once considered developing a playlist, but my son informed me that nobody would listen to a playlist I devised. I recently had a reader suggest Demons, by Imagine Dragons, as a kind of theme for the Seven Realms, and I have to say, I agree.

I love the artwork that talented readers create, from video trailers to fan art to fan fiction to music. I had two readers write a symphony based on the Heir Chronicles (Shadowslayer.) Roto has written two original songs for Seven Realms trailers. All of those are available on my website.

RF: When writing a book, or while reading another author's work, what emotional response gives you the most satisfaction?

CWC: It’s the relationship between readers and characters that create tension in story. And so when a masterful writer entangles me with characters, I ask myself, How did he do that? I began writing my first stories set in the Seven Realms after reading George R.R. Martin’s Song of Ice and Fire. I was fascinated with what he did with character—and it was in fantasy. I want to do that, I thought.

RF: Do you have to stay vigilant against any particular writing mistakes? What are they?

CWC: Like most writers, I have my writing “ticks” that can throw an alert reader out of a story. For instance, for a while all my characters were running their hands through their hair. Then they move on to pursing their lips. Don’t go looking, okay?

RF: Apart from the pleasure they give, how do you think your books can help make life in the "real world" better?

CWC: For me, my first goal—always—is to write a great story. To provide escape and enjoyment to readers. Anything that gets between readers and a good story diminishes the work. Great stories come from character agendas—not the agendas of the author.

I have this theory that reading is, by its nature, a creative pursuit. Readers and writers are always partners in story—they each contribute to the final work. It doesn’t matter what you’re reading—it’s all great training for creativity. Hard is not necessarily better. That’s why I don’t buy the current focus on reading levels and testing. Way to destroy reading for pleasure.

Now, when you write a great story, it does provide a bit of a platform. I include diverse characters in my novels—because that’s the way the world is, and people should be able to see themselves in fiction. Certain themes surface, over and over in my stories—but theme comes from story, not the other way around. For instance, in the Seven Realms, I explore how a Big Lie, told often enough, and by powerful people, can change history. History is written by the victors.

RF: Are you currently addicted to any series of books by another author? What series?

CWC: Some of the books I’m most smitten with have been stand-alones like Maggie Stiefvater’s Scorpio Races and Elizabeth Wein’s Code Name Verity. Right now I’m reading and loving Grave Mercy by Robin LaFevers, which is the first book in a fantasy trilogy.

RF: Can you name a particular author or title that has made you laugh recently?

CWC: John Green’s The Fault in Our Stars is amazingly funny for a novel about two teens with cancer.

RF: In very general terms, where are your kids at these days? Are they of any help to you as a writer? How do you think your writing has affected their career plans?

CWC: My sons are both out of college, both working in information technology. My older son, however, double majored in computer science and journalism, and he’s an aspiring writer. Also a great first reader. After he read The Crimson Crown, he called me up and said, “Mom! I totally didn’t see that coming!” and I was, “Yes!!!!”—because he’s hard to fool.

I credit my sons for my interest in writing YA. They were 13 and 16 when I decided to try my hand at novel-length fiction again. We all loved reading fantasy, and I thought, Wouldn’t it be cool to write something they would enjoy reading? They were just relieved I stopped writing personal essays about parenting them!

My Interview with Diesel

Remember my review of Mercury Falls? Yeah? Well, I'm happy to say, author Rob Kroese, a.k.a. Diesel, didn't take it too badly. He's been kind enough to grant me an interview, in the usual Blogosphere way - via an exchange of emails. Even though I didn't get to talk with him in person, I can honestly say that, in our few brief exchanges, he made me laugh when I really needed it. So I trust you'll enjoy this delicately edited chat with one of the sharpest wits in the postmodern apocalyptic satire genre. Thanks, Diesel!

RF: What comfort can you give to those of us who are bummed about the decline of your hilarious blog Mattress Police? Are you planning a comeback? Is it true that you're going to turn your best posts into a book?

RK: Not only am I working on a book of my best posts; I’m actually working on three books of my best posts (in addition to MERCURY RISES, the sequel to Mercury Falls). The first collection is going to be called THE FORCE IS MIDDLING IN THIS ONE, and it should be available by May of this year.

A comeback of MP is unlikely. I’m kind of an obsessive person, and my phase of being obsessed with MP is over. MP was critical to my development as a writer, but I’m such a perfectionist that I prefer writing books that I can spend months working on rather than grinding out a couple of posts a week.

RF: The funny pages have Dilbert. TV has The Office. The web has Mattress Police. Are you picking up my hint as to which posts I think should go into your next book?

RK: I get the sense that you enjoy the anecdotes from my work life. That bad news (for you) is that my next book (THE FORCE IS MIDDLING IN THIS ONE) is going to be a random compilation of my best posts, leaving out most of the work-related ones. The good news is that after FORCE, I’m going to be doing a more autobiographical book that focuses on my experiences as a misfit in school and at the various companies where I’ve worked. The book is going to be called NOT LIVING UP TO MY POTENTIAL, and it will include all my Punta Gorda posts and a bunch of the work-related ones, such as “Human Inertia” and the ones about His Excellency Lord Monkeyhands.

RF: Rounded to the nearest .44%, what percentage of MERCURY FALLS is based on your work experience, only with angel wings airbrushed into the picture?

RK: Not that much, actually. The sad thing is that real life organizations are far worse than the way I painted Heaven and Hell in MERCURY FALLS. If I’d have used my work experience as a model, I think readers would just have been confused and frustrated.

It is true, though, that the “bureaucratic inertia paradox” that appears in the book was based on an actual experience of mine that I wrote about in my Human Inertia post. The company I was working for had proposed a policy where every project that I worked on would have to get approval from my boss, whom I called “Human Inertia.” At first I was appalled, because I knew that if my projects had to be approved by Human Inertia, I would never be able to get anything done. But then I realized that this new process would itself have to be approved by Human Inertia – and that would also never happen, because Human Inertia never did anything. Human Inertia was unable to fulfill his purpose of preventing any work from being done, because doing so would have required him to do some work himself.

RF: What happened to Humor-Blogs.com?

RK: I recently pulled the plug on that site. It kept getting hacked and it was just too much work to maintain.

RF: Was it my imagination, or does the teen warlock fandom depicted in your book a spoof on the Harry Potter phenomenon? What other influences went into it?

RK: It wasn’t your imagination, although it really was more of a spoof of teen fantasy books in general. Katie Midford was modeled after J.K. Rowling to some degree, but only superficially. For the record, I think Rowling is a good writer (although the Harry Potter movies are largely dreck). She’s certainly head and shoulders above Christopher Paolini and Stephanie Meyer. By the way, the true significance of the Charlie Nyx books will become evident in the sequel, MERCURY RISES.

RF: The early chapters of your book aim some pretty heavy guns at the whole side of American Christianity that's always following signs and prophecies of the imminent end. How much research went into this? How much of your personal, spiritual background is reflected in this material?

RK: I wouldn’t call what I did “research,” although I spent a lot of time on Google and Wikipedia. I did lead a study group at my church several years ago on Andrew Kuyvenhoven’s book The Day of Christ’s Return, but honestly the specific timetables of the rapture and the millennial reign and all that stuff never really interested me. The nice thing about that book is that Kuyvenhoven doesn’t really say that millennialists are wrong; he just says that they’re focusing on the wrong thing. A focus on timetables and things that are completely beyond our knowledge and understanding distracts us from what we’re really supposed to be doing with our lives. In MERCURY FALLS, that sort of wrongheaded thinking informs the character of Harry Giddings. Harry is a Christian and basically a decent guy, but in the end his priorities are screwed up, and you see where that gets him.

RF: Some of the same folks who think Harry Potter is satanic may eventually get around to condemning your book as well. How satisfying will that be? How would you respond, in advance, to their claim that MERCURY FALLS attacks their religion? What role do you think God will or won't play in the end of the world?

RK: My own mother-in-law sat me down and told me how disappointed she was that she wouldn’t be able to recommend MERCURY FALLS for the church library. I don’t really know how to start a discussion with someone who uses the church library as the benchmark for quality literature. Generally these arguments are a waste of time. Either you “get” the book or you don’t. My mother-in-law didn’t get it. At least she read it, though, so I have to give her props for that. Without boring you with my own theories on humor and truth, I’ll just say that I don’t think God has anything to fear from MERCURY FALLS. As for the end of the world, well, that’s not really my department. ;)

RF: Are you considering another book about Mercury and/or Christine? What is "Mercury Swings" about?

RK: “Mercury Swings” is a silly little short story that I wrote just to try out the idea of another adventure starring the angel Mercury. You can get it for free at Smashwords. Basically, it’s a prequel to MERCURY FALLS, in which Mercury is assigned to “extract” the Biblical character Enoch from Earth because, well, Enoch knows too much. I’m also about 150 pages into MERCURY RISES, the sequel to MERCURY FALLS. The contents of“Mercury Swings” may or may not be incorporated into MERCURY RISES (I haven’t decided yet).

RF: Apart from providing lots of comic material, how has your work in software development aided your growing career as a writer?

RK: Well, the main thing is that it provides me enough income that I don’t have to worry about the fact that I make basically nothing as a writer.

RF: I loved the caption contests on your blog. What is it that made your photo caption contests funnier than anyone else's?

RK: First, I have a lot of creative, intelligent readers who kept the bar pretty high every week with their captions. Beyond that, there’s the fact that I inserted myself into all the caption contest pictures, and I have no problem with making myself look like a complete idiot as long as it’s in the service of making people laugh.

RF: What books and music are you enjoying these days? Which artists have the most influence on what you do?

RK: A recent reviewer on Amazon said that the style of MERCURY FALLS was “somewhere between that of Kurt Vonnegut and Douglas Adams,” which is pretty much the highest possible praise in my mind. The great thing about Adams and Vonnegut is that they write with absolutely no pretense; they just plow ahead and tell the story. If Faulkner is a Cadillac Escalade, Vonnegut is a Porsche Carrera. As a software developer and philosophy student who values terse language that packs a big punch, I have little patience for flowery, evocative language. I just want a writer to take me for a ride. That’s what Vonnegut and Adams do, and that’s what I tried to do with MERCURY FALLS.

As for music, I’m in a weird glam/hair metal stage right now. I’m been listening to a lot of Whitesnake. My wife is concerned.

RF: How is self-publishing working out for you?

RK: Really, really well. Don’t let anyone tell you that you have to be published by a “real” publisher to be taken seriously as an author. Including Kindle sales, MERCURY FALLS has sold nearly 4,000 copies since it was released in October, and Barnes & Noble is now stocking it. MERCURY FALLS also has (at last count) 109 reviews on Amazon, with an average score of 4.8 out of 5. Traditional publishing is really on the skids.

RF: Where can my readers find your book for sale?

RK: Everywhere. Your local bookstore probably won’t have it, but they can order it. There are links to buy it in all different formats at this site.

My Interview with Steve Augarde

It's always exciting when an author notices my reviews of their work. Lately, I've been rewarded with more "Advance Reviewer Copies" than I know what to do with. One of them was actually the already-published UK edition of X Isle, though it has not yet been publisehed in the US. Now that I've posted my review of it, I am keen to share my interview with its author Steve Augarde. Like all my previous author interviews, it was carried out via email. Yet there's a certain charming illusion about it, as if we'd had a comfortable, face-to-face chat. Hold that image in your head. Ah, the wonders of the internet!

SA: That's such a wonderful review, Robbie. Thank you so much! I hope you won't mind that I've put it straight up onto my blog, with a link to your site. And thanks for resisting the temptation to divulge the hidden surprises that you were so quick to spot!

RF: I was hoping I hadn't given TOO much away, what with my hints about flatulence. I just thought that was too much fun to pass over completely. But I hate spoilers as much as the next guy.

SA: Fire away with the questions any time.

RF: The dust jacket says that, besides X Isle and the Touchstone trilogy, you have written 70 children's picture books, paper-engineered several pop-up books, and furnished art and music for a couple animated series on the Beeb. Of which among these projects do you feel especially proud? Are there common themes between them and the books you've been writing lately?

SA: I think that longevity is perhaps a fair indication of worth. To find that past efforts continue to be valued makes me feel proud. So of my pop-up books, Tractor Factory is the one that I’m most pleased with -- it’s still in print, some sixteen years after its original publication, and I often come across copies in schools and libraries that I visit.

My work for the BBC was as an illustrator and musician on the children’s cartoon series Bump. The original viewers are now in their early twenties, and I see that the title sequence for Bump is a much-visited item on YouTube. From the posted comments it’s plain that the programmes are looked back on with fondness. That gives me pleasure.

Of my novels I feel that X Isle is the best, but then it’s the most recent and so perhaps I need a little more distance before I can make proper judgement.

RF: With the Touchstone trilogy, your work turned in a more mature direction. What inspired you to take this new path?

SA: Part curiosity, part necessity. I’d always wondered whether I could write for an older age group, and so I began dabbling with a story at a time when I was 'in between' projects -- i.e. when I’d run out of other ideas!

I sent the beginnings of this story to a publisher, who went ahead and commissioned it, to my great surprise, and I found myself embarking on what turned out to be the The Various, the first book in The Touchstone Trilogy.

RF: What traditions or influences would you like to honor in your work?

SA: Books were very special to me as a child -- real treasures -- and I try to produce books that will be treasured in their turn.

From being introduced to stories at a very early age, children get a handle on the world that surrounds them, and the infinite worlds of their own imaginations. It’s the tradition of reading itself that’s so important, I think, rather than the work of any individual writer.

RF: What has been most encouraging to you as you write and rewrite each of your books?

SA: Bank statements, mostly!

RF: What gave you the idea for The Various? When and how did you decide to build a trilogy on it?

SA: The actual storyline began as a single image. I had a picture in my head of a girl in a barn, kneeling beside a strange and injured creature – something both magical and alien. I could sense the atmosphere, the smell of hay and tractor oil, tiny beams of sunlight penetrating the holes in a rusty tin roof. The image was strong enough to get me writing, but only as an experiment. I had no notion of where the ‘story’ might go. I was simply interested in discovering whether or not I had any ability as a writer. The publisher David Fickling knew me as an illustrator and paper engineer, and I asked him if he’d mind giving me an opinion on the thirty odd pages that I’d so far produced. He gave me a not only an opinion but a contract to go with it, and so then I had no choice but to write the book.

As the tale of the Various tribes began to develop, I realised that there must be a history to these people and their struggles, a back story, and that it wasn’t all going to fit into one book. So it expanded into a trilogy. A scary prospect.

RF: What was the toughest decision you had to make as you wrote the Touchstone trilogy? Or what was the stickiest problem you had to work through?

SA: Just the sheer volume of ideas. I was very green, and knew little or nothing about how to plot a story, how to keep the writing tight, how to separate what was necessary from what was superfluous. I was continually trying to convince both the reader and myself, and piled detail upon detail in order to achieve this. My editor had to chuck out about half of everything I presented to her.

Writing the trilogy was a very long process, about six years toil, and it wasn’t always easy to keep faith with it. I’d be terrified of tackling such a massive project today, but that’s where ignorance can be a good thing. If I’d known back in 2002 what I know now, then I’d have fought shy of such an ambitious work, and The Touchstone Trilogy would probably never have come about.

RF: Did you feel a particular connection to one or two characters in that series? Which ones and why?

SA: Well, I spent a lot of time in the company of those characters and so I got to know them pretty well. I suppose in superficial terms Uncle Brian is the one most like me. I didn’t have to look too far to conjure up this rather ineffectual middle-aged man whose children are a source of bewilderment to him!

I like the three heroines, of course, Midge and Celandine and Una. Each of them is special in her own way, but Celandine is probably my favourite. Had you realised that she was gay? This was something that I’d considered all along, but it’s only finally hinted at in Winter Wood, when Celandine reappears as an old lady. The nature of her eventual relationship with Nina, an earlier childhood friend, is not something that I would expect a young readership to pick up on, nor would it be appropriate to spell it out, but I wanted it to be so nevertheless. No adult reader has ever mentioned it, not even my editor. I’m rather proud of that. It means that I’ve resisted the temptation to sensationalise, or be anything other than quietly matter-of-fact about what turned out to be a lifelong partnership.

RF: What type of reader do you think will take the richest experience from reading the Touchstone trilogy?

SA: Haha. One with a lot of patience! A trilogy by definition is a long haul, and not something to be rushed through.

RF: With this latest book, some would say you've turned another corner - for example, from a girl's fantasy (faeries at the bottom of the garden, etc.) to a boy's (weaponized farts, fighting the ultimate school bullies, etc.). Why would you agree or disagree?

SA: Well, I wouldn’t say that the trilogy is 'a girl’s fantasy'. There are a lot of powerful male characters in there, and the three books probably contain as much terrorism and violence as X Isle, if not more. I’ve never actually done a body count! However, it’s undeniable that the trilogy’s protagonists are girls and so it’s difficult to persuade boys that this is for them too – particularly when the US covers are so overtly feminine.

With X Isle, by contrast, I very deliberately set out to write a book that boys would be happy to be seen reading. The truth is that girls will pick up anything that looks interesting to them. Boys are more self-conscious, I think, and tend to balk at the idea of 'faeries', even though said 'faeries' are more likely to put an arrow through you than dance at the bottom of your garden.

RF: How you would like X Isle to affect the thinking of young readers?

SA: X Isle is a thriller first and foremost, and many young readers may view it as no more than that. That’s fine. However, there are deep moral conundrums at its core, some very difficult questions regarding ‘right’ and 'wrong'. I’ve been careful not to provide ready answers to these -- and indeed some of the boys in the story take opposing views. It’s inevitable that readers will imagine themselves under similar circumstances, and ask 'What would I have done?' I hope that the book will provoke discussion.

I confess I was rather worried as to what you might make of the religious aspect -- whether Preacher John's twisted fundamentalism might have been seen as a swipe at Christianity. But you've obviously got the point -- that the man's a maniac who perverts belief to his own ends -- which makes me hopeful that other people of faith will see it in the same light.

RF: I am a Christian but no fundamentalist, and I recognized (particularly from Baz's urge to pray at the end of the story) that you weren't attacking religion as such. Preacher John wasn't much of a representative of Christianity, anyway. He stated, for example, that "Turn the other cheek" were not the words of his God, but they are the words of mine (Matthew 5:39).

SA: Yes, and PJ's often quoted 'God helps those who helps themselves' isn't even in the Bible as I'm sure you know. He had to be bad enough to warrant his violent end.

RF: What led you to choose the particular hymns Preacher John called for in his weekly services?

SA: Preacher John chooses hymns to suit his own twisted purpose, but of course many of these are familiar to me from childhood. I was a choirboy and a bell-ringer, and though never a true believer I’m still a lover of the old hymns and psalms and carols. Can’t bear the modern happy-clappy stuff. Why sing ‘hymns’ that sound as though they were thrown together by a teaching assistant during coffee break when you’ve got the majesty of William Blake and the Wesleys to call upon? It’s the same with the Bible. The poetry of the old King James version is beautiful to me, and all attempts to ‘update’ it for a modern readership should be vigorously resisted! Hypocritical, I know.

RF: I'm with you on this! Did you do much scientific research as you prepared this book? How plausible do you think the post-flood conditions are? How about the engineering of the boys' master plan?

SA: I did do a fair bit of research, but didn’t want to bog the reader down in unnecessary detail. Something terrible has happened to the world, and the story is set firmly in the aftermath. The hows and whys and wherefores of what led to this devastation are left deliberately vague. As regards the engineering for the boys’ plan I had to be very careful indeed. The last thing I would want is to be accused of providing a blueprint for building a WMD! If anyone should seriously think that I’ve been irresponsible then I can assure them that this is not the case. I’m both a parent and a qualified teacher, and would never suggest anything that could cause harm. Gene, the character who constructs the mighty weapon, is a clever lad, but he’s not quite as clever as his creator! Let me give you one tiny hint: ‘flawed science’. We’ll leave it at that.

RF: As you wrote this book, what changed the most from the way you initially planned it?

SA: It was originally more adult. There were a couple of passages that involved sexuality, but my editor felt that this moved the book into a higher age group, which neither of us wanted, and so I agreed to make some cuts. She was quite right, as usual, and there was no argument over it.

RF: Do you have another book cooking? What should we expect from you next?

SA: Another ‘boys’ book. This one is set South Africa during the late 1930s, just before the outbreak of World War Two. It’s a kind of homage to the gung-ho adventure stories of the time, Boys Own stuff. But with a twist, naturally!

RF: Are you planning any publicity trips to the U.S. or other countries?

SA: Wouldn’t that be nice? But no, I’ve nothing planned. My youngest daughter is spending one of her university terms in Louisiana later this year, and I’d love to be able to join her for a week or two. So you never know -- I might get to visit, and turn up for a couple of bookshop signing sessions.

RF: What overall goal or mission would you like your creative work to achieve?

SA: I have no grand mission as such. I just want to produce good quality writing, work that entertains without being patronising or in any way dumbed down. Books face stiff competition nowadays from less demanding forms of entertainment – the internet, games consoles and the like. But I still believe in the power of story, whether it be delivered in electronic or paper format. Nothing else compares. I’d like to think that readers might close the last page of a book that I’ve produced, and say ‘That’s why I read’.

IMAGES: Bump the Elephant; covers of selected books by Steve Augarde. Thanks, Steve!

My Interview with Sarah Beth Durst

The author of Into the Wild and Out of the Wild recently contacted me to let me know about her latest book, Ice. As a result, I was able to get a free copy of the book and publish a review of it before it was released on October 6. Another exciting result is that Sarah agreed to give me an interview, albeit in the emailed-back-and-forth format that passes for an interview in the Blogosphere. So here are my Q's and her A's. Thanks, Sarah!

RF: What attracted you to writing a book based on "East of the Sun and West of the Moon"? Did a particular version of this grandmother tale inspire you?

SBD: I love this fairy tale. It has everything one could ask for: a fearless heroine, true love, an impossible quest, and a talking polar bear. The version of the tale that I fell in love with was collected by the Norwegian folklorists Asbjornsen and Moe, translated to English by George Webbe Dasent and illustrated by the amazing artist P. J. Lynch.

I veer rather far from the original tale in my novel ICE -- it's set in present-day Arctic and incorporates a lot of elements not in the traditional story -- but at its heart, it is still a tale of a fearless girl, true love, and an impossible quest across the frozen North.

RF: Besides your study of folklore, what research did you do to prepare for writing ICE?

SBD: I did a TON of research on the Arctic. I read every nature book, survival guide, polar bear book, explorer memoir, etc. that I could get my hands on. My favorite was A Naturalist's Guide to the Arctic by E. C. Pielou.

RF: How closely do you identify with Cassie, your main character in ICE?

SBD: Not at all. She dives into freezing oceans, jumps off mountains, and walks through blizzards. I, on the other hand, am a total coward and not very fond of the outdoors. (Too many bugs!) I loved writing about her, though, and living vicariously.

RF: Tell us a little about the path that led you to write novels based on folklore.

SBD: Folklore and fairy tales are everywhere. The images have such a grip on our imagination and on our way of seeing the world. To me as a writer, they're irresistible. So many reader expectations and so much cultural baggage to play with!

RF: Do you have other folklore-based novels planned? What can you tell us about them?

SBD: My next novel is called TIGERLILY, and it's coming from Simon & Schuster in fall 2010. It's about magic at Princeton. It isn’t folklore-based, but it does have were-tigers, talking-gargoyles, dragons, and hot college boys. I've very excited about it!

RF: What values or message do you want to get across to your readers? Or, do your books have a purpose besides to entertain?

SBD: Story comes first. Always. That said, I'm sure my worldview seeps into all my work. ICE, for example, is about true love -- the kind of love you work at, not simply fall into. Real love.

RF: In order of priority, who is the "target audience" you intend to write for?

SBD: I write for me -- or people like me, who want magic, adventure, and love in their books. I don't write for a particular age. In fact, I think it's a mistake to alter your style or tone or themes to fit a particular age reader. Just be true to the story and the characters and your own heart, and the rest will take care of itself.

RF: What writers and books do you consider most influential on your work and outlook?

SBD: I love fantasy. These days, I read YA fantasy almost exclusively. Some of my favorites are Tamora Pierce, Diana Wynne Jones, Diane Duane, and Patricia C. Wrede.

I love the optimistic worldview that you find in so much of YA fantasy, the little-guy-can-triumph and true-love-conquers-all kind of attitude. That attitude matches my outlook and informs my work. I’m definitely a glass-half-full, don’t-give-up kind of person.

RF: What do you think of your contemporaries, such as Michael Buckley and Delia Sherman, who are writing books based on similar material?

SBD: I love their work! Michael Buckley's Sisters Grimm books are wonderful, clever and fun, and Delia Sherman's Changeling is a must-read for anyone who has ever set foot in NYC. I'd also recommend Juliet Marillier's Wildwood Dancing and Elizabeth C. Bunce's A Curse Dark as Gold.

There are a ton of wonderful YA books out these days. It's a very exciting field to be a part of!

Thanks so much for interviewing me!

My Interview with N. D. Wilson

Recently, when my rave review of N. D. Wilson's 100 Cupboards was published on MuggleNet, a publicist from Random House emailed me in appreciation. She then offered to send me an Advance Review Copy of the sequel, Dandelion Fire, to be released February 24. As you know by now, I enjoyed the book and said so in a review.

The result was yet another offer: an opportunity to give away free copies of both books (which we are doing via a writing contest on MuggleNet). Since the author and his publicist were in such a good mood, I decided to ask for a chance to interview Mr. Wilson. I submitted my questions, and now the answers have arrived. With deep gratitude to both Nate and Meg, here is our interview. My questions and comments are in bold type; Mr. Wilson's responses are in plain type.

It's not hard to pick up on a spiritual dimension in the 100 Cupboards trilogy. I can't help but be curious about the religious background you are writing from, especially knowing that you edit a journal titled Credenda/Agenda. Could you unpack the description of Credenda/Agenda as a "trinitarian" journal? What can you say about its/your general doctrinal position, denominational affiliation, etc.?

I don’t usually get asked “religious questions” in reaction to my fantasy, so this will be fun. Here’s the best nutshell description I can give of my religious background: I was raised by a couple Jesus people hippies who gradually (throughout the course of my life) became Presbyterians. My father was the pastor, and I grew up attending his church in all of its hilarious permutations (meeting in parks, auto-body shops, etc.). I attend it still with my own young tribe. The hippiness has matured into something more liturgical and formal—historic creeds, confessions, weekly sacrament, and so on. To some, it might appear Anglican (there are similarities), but it belongs to a small Presbyterian denomination. It is still nomadic--currently meeting in a gym.

My parents soaked me in Tolkien and C.S. Lewis from a very young age, and my father was involved in starting a classical school in our small, rural town so that my sisters and I would get Latin and wrangle with big stacks of classics, ancient and modern. I studied some Philosophy of Religion after my undergrad but ended up with a broader MA in liberal arts from St. John’s College (Annapolis, MD).

That’s my background, but you asked about “trinitarian.” I believe in a triune Artist/Creator God, which means that I believe that at the very root of reality there is paradox and mystery, there is eternal love and tension and balance. I think that has to be part of why I love fantasy. Looking out of my eyes, we are all living in one. Which is to say that fantasy is just another take on realism.

How have your religious beliefs influenced the overall shape of the 100 Cupboards?

My religious beliefs are part of who I am, so they influence everything I do. But I wasn’t setting out to write a religious story. I wanted to write a good one. Of course, what I think is good is informed by my beliefs. I see patterns—triumph through sacrifice, death and resurrection, small foolish things overthrowing powerful things—everywhere in the world, in history, in literature, in mythology. And I find those patterns beautiful and work to imitate them. I also see the world crawling with mystery, every corner crammed with life and the secrets that sustain it. That is certainly something I try to communicate.

Would you say that the series has an overarching spiritual message?

Not in the way that most people would think of a “spiritual message.” But also yes. Sure it does—in the same way that life has an overarching spiritual message. Only my stories are distilled and stylized. There are a lot of themes that run through the books, but one of the most important things I’ve tried to communicate is a sense of wonder. I want kids to close the book and step back into their own world with wide eyes, marveling at the grass and the wind and the sun and the trees. In some ways, this is anti-escapism. Don’t grow bored with this world and lose yourself in books. Lose yourself in books to wake up in this world. Nothing I can paint with words could ever surpass the artistry in any child’s backyard—the earth beneath, the sky above, the many narratives between.

How has your spiritual worldview influenced the development of Henry York as a character?

Henry begins in a place where many modern kids can relate to him, and then he becomes the vehicle for the wonder I described above. Henry discovers the true overwhelming madness of the world and then his place within it. He discovers strength and an ability to affect and change the world. He begins as a weak and lowly character but rises up to shake the foundations of evil. It’s one of the great patterns in literature (and history), one that not only applied to Christ (born in a barn), but also to the various Hebrew prophets, judges, and even kings in the Old Testament—Moses, David, Elijah, Deborah, etc.

Where in your thinking did the christening scene in Dandelion Fire come from?

I actually partially stole it from an old Scottish legend about a pastor (and seventh son) abducted by faeries. He could only briefly return at the christening of his son. That legend was one of the important inspirations for the whole 100 Cupboards series. But it also got me thinking about the power of naming, and I loved how it trumped faerie magic. From my earliest imaginings of the story, the christening scene was always going to be a lynchpin.

As for the flavor of the scene, Henry is stepping into a city with both Hebraic and Byzantine echoes. I wanted the christening to smell and feel like something descended from those two cultures.

What idea, when it came to you, made you sure 100 Cupboards was a story you had to write?

There are so many places in history and literature and legend that I would give anything to see. So, when I first had this image in my head of an attic wall cluttered with small, mismatched doors, and I began to think of the possibilities, well, then I was completely hooked. I couldn’t turn my head off, and I can’t tell you how many dreams I’ve had about it.

Is there a character in this trilogy you find especially difficult, or especially easy, to write about?

Henry is an old and familiar friend. (And it isn’t hard to relate to fear and surprise.) Henrietta is also a quick fit for me. But the characters that are really hard to write (and not just in these books), are the wise and noble folks. Flaws and immaturity are easy. We can all relate to them. But how do you write someone with profound insight (when you, the author, don’t have any)? Given that, I’ll leave you to figure out which characters I struggled over.

I felt a sense of closure at the end of Dandelion Fire. Was there a time when you considered ending the series at two books? How much has the overall shape of the trilogy changed in your mind during the writing process?\

When I first set out to write this story, I wanted it to be a single volume. And I actually wrote that single volume. It was bloated, enormous, and it didn’t breathe, but it was a single volume nonetheless. I still loved the story (and my characters), but I abhorred the execution. So I began to think about how to break it into two. The only problem was that it was built (roughly), on a three act structure. Through some funny circumstances (and miscommunication), that bloated manuscript was sent out to editors, and I started getting some very nice rejection letters. Could you break it into a pair? Could you cut it in half? Too long for us. That sort of thing. But it was an editor at Random House who asked to see a proposal for how I would break it into thirds—which was certainly the most natural fit. I put together that proposal, loved it, and then, rather than digging right back into the story, I got to work on a different one. I wanted to write something tight, perfect, simple, and disciplined before sweating through the more intricate story around the 100 Cupboards. That smaller book was an adventure story called Leepike Ridge, and it was sent back to RH along with my trilogy proposal. The end result was a four book deal, and we all lived happily ever after.

Actually, by the time I’d gone through the editing process on Leepike and had come back to 100 Cupboards, the ideas and characters had matured a great deal in my mind. So I rewrote the books virtually from scratch (recycling the best bits, of course). So now, when readers pick up 100 Cupboards or Dandelion Fire in stores, they are getting the final incarnation of something that began in 2002—the butterfly as opposed to the fat, greasy caterpillar.

In your autobiographical blurb, you discuss how you wanted to combine fantasy stories like Narnia and Middle Earth with a direct appeal to the imagination of American kids. Could you explain in more detail what you feel needs to be added to the world of fantasy?

It’s not that I see a problem or a profound lack in the current world of fantasy. But I think you could call it a growth opportunity. American kids have plenty of fantasy that appeals to them. The question is only how they feel about their own lives and environments when they’ve finished reading. On my last book tour, I ran a little experiment. I would ask groups of kids which country they needed to live in if they wanted to have magical adventures. Of course, fantasy and magic are global. They can wander anywhere. But that’s not what I was told. The answer (always shouted back), was England.

I love English fantasy, and that nation (in my own humble o.) has produced the best fantasy to date (a few times over). But I wanted magical imaginations to broaden, to more thoroughly include the taste of Americana mythic. I want kids to look at lonely red barns in the same way that I would have looked at a wardrobe discovered in an empty room. I want the whole world to be seen as magical, including our part of it. And so I use baseball and wheat fields and a tiny rural town in Kansas. Thanks to Oz, we know anything can happen in Kansas.

In your efforts to place magic in the middle of America, you are in good company. How would you rate L. Frank Baum, Carl Sandburg, Edward Eager, or other American authors as influences on your work?

Well, I just referenced Baum’s Oz. I play around with a few of his types as a sort of acknowledgement. But (if we are looking for honesty here), I am far more a product of the British writers. I first heard Tolkien and Narnia in the comfort of my high chair (literally). They remain the standard for me, the benchmark of creativity. But I owe debts to others outside the fantasy genre as well. Of the Americans, Twain left the most residue on me. John Buchan influenced me in ways that would be hard to describe. G. K. Chesterton’s nonfiction (though I didn’t read him until adulthood), has flavored my perspective on magic more than almost anyone. I also love Borges and his magic realism. Oh, and Tintin.

In 100 Cupboards, the titular cupboards seemed to lead to as many different worlds scattered through time and space. In Dandelion Fire, however, we learn that several of them lead to different places within the same world. Is there an overall name for this world? Is it a version of Earth? Can you spare a little description of the overall layout of this world?

At first, I thought that the world would have a name. But do we have a name for ours? It is simply the world. We call the planet Earth, but the world is nameless. And so it is for those inhabitants in that other world. To them, it is not the other world. It is the world. I’m tempted to really dig into this, but I probably shouldn’t. I’ll be the good author and refuse to give away too many of my secrets. But I will say this (a description that occurs within the books as well): it is not a version of Earth. It is branch on the same tree, a twig on the same tumbleweed. Move down to the trunk, and it is all only one single world. Move up, and history forks and splinters into different branches of reality. Does that help?

According to Dandelion Fire, that world also contains magical doors that enable people to travel huge distances within the same world. How is the magic connecting different parts of this world similar or different to the magic connecting the world of Hylfing, Byzanthamum, and Fitz-Faeren to Kansas?

Maybe I should keep mum, but I’ll give you a little something here. There are a couple types of magic in the trilogy. The most basic breakdown is between natural and unnatural. An example of natural would be the magic of the faeren. They are able to do what they are able to do in the same way that a bird is able to fly. The wizards (for the most part) are using unnatural magic. They are like men in helicopters—they have to manipulate and force the world to give them its strength. (Not that I have anything against helicopters.) The seventh sons are men with natural magic like the faeren—the world gifts them with different strengths and allows them a measure of control. Darius and Nimiane are blends, but I’ll say no more about them.

The doors... now we must apply this to the doors. The faeren have their own “natural” fluctuating connections between distant places which they can control. The forgotten wizards set themselves “unnatural” gashes in reality, and fixed them in place with stone. The cupboard doors are primarily natural connections—but they have been collected and arranged and manipulated in an “unnatural” and dangerous way.

The world that opens to us in Dandelion Fire seems very complex and fascinating. One senses there is still much to discover in it, such as the Empire that was mentioned a few times. Can we expect to see more of it in The Chestnut King? And/or will we explore other worlds connected to those Kansas cupboards?

Expect the story to focus in on the tensions left at the end of Dandelion Fire. I want to say more, but I shouldn’t. You’ve already got me spilling beans.

In her Tough Guide to Fantasyland, Diana Wynne Jones claims that a map is practically a sine qua non of a fantasy novel. Interestingly, the 100 Cupboards books begin not with a map of the world surrounding Hylfing, but with a fascinating illustration of the wall in Henry's bedroom, along with a page of notes on them from Grandpa's journal. Can you remark on the connection between fantasy fiction and a fascination with maps and complex charts? Did you make and use a map of the Hylfing world as you wrote these books? If so, can you explain the decision not to include it in the book?

I have the world pretty well mapped out. And it was helpful to me as I wrote. But I didn’t generate a map that would have been publishable, and my editor didn’t feel that one was needed, especially given the door chart that was included, and the story’s focus on the cupboards.

All right, readers have to be curious about Henry's brothers. He is supposed to be the seventh son of a seventh son, but we haven't met any of his older brothers. What information about Mordecai's first six sons can you share right now?

Ha. Look at me. Finally, a picture of self-restraint. I say nothing.

Do your kids inspire you as an author of juvenile fiction? In what ways?

Absolutely. They keep my imagination rooted. They’re young (seven and under), but they regularly gather around at night and become story beggars. As I work to construct tales for them, I’ll frequently come across ideas, characters, settings, and creatures that I fully intend to use in the future. And all the ideas have been field-tested in advance. Perhaps more importantly, having young children has enabled me to see the world through their uncalloused eyes. Turns out, it’s an amazing place.

Are any characters in the 100 Cupboards trilogy based on yourself or people you know?

Some are similar to an acquaintance or two, but the similarities were discovered after the fact (and mostly unintentional).

Assuming that you read around the genre in which you write, what handful of books would you recommend to readers who love 100 Cupboards?

I try not to read in my genre too much (especially when I’m writing). I’m too easily influenced. And when I have read, it can be unwise to comment on the work of my peers. But I can plug the Attolia books by Megan Whalen Turner. They are some of the most original fantasy that I’ve encountered in a while, and I enjoyed them immensely. {I wholeheartedly agree!}

Can we expect more juvenile fiction from you when this trilogy is done? In general terms, what do you plan to do next?

Yes you can. Expect away. I’m actually working on the structure of a rather ambitious series right now (also with Random House). Can’t say more yet, I’m afraid. But I’m quite excited. I also have a standalone to finish (more in the vein of my first book—Leepike Ridge), and an adult novel I hope to sweat over sometime in the next couple years.

Do you think (or hope) your work will make the world better? In what ways?

Of course, I would be thrilled if the world were to improve thanks to my labors. But I think of myself as a cook (a chef on my fancier days). I want to feed as many young imaginations as I can. I want to feed them well. I want them healthy. I can hope that my readers will be improved and go on to improve the world around them. But more immediately, I can hope that I have given them friends and siblings and cousins in my characters. I can hope that I am brightening days and weeks and dreams.

My Interview with P. W. Catanese

A lot of exciting perks come with writing the reviews on MuggleNet's Book Trolley. I love being able to share the joy of books with people, especially hungry young readers who are just starting to appreciate how much fun the world of literature holds for them. I appreciate their feedback and suggestions. It makes my day when authors let me know they appreciated my review of their books. And of course, I don't mind getting a free book now and then - though I only accept offers of books that I would have read regardless.

But when an author whose work I respect and enjoy grants me an interview, my excitement overflows the boundaries of verbal description. It's only happened once before now. This time it is P. W. Catanese, answering my questions about his latest book, Happenstance Found, book one of "The Books of Umber." Thanks again, Paul! And now for the Q&A...

RF: How far ahead have you planned the "Books of Umber"?
PWC: All the way to the very end, including the last scene. (I can vividly recall walking down a street in New York City when the final twist popped into my head.) I had to provide a synopsis for the entire series to my publisher, Simon and Schuster, as part of the process of selling the idea. It was for my own good, too, since I really wanted to be sure I knew where the story was going. This series is very tightly plotted with a lot of threads coming together and resolving. So, while I don’t always outline my novels, I did outline all the books in this series.

Is the series open-ended, or do you have a certain number of books in mind? How many?
Right now the plan is for three books. There will be a very definitive end.

Can you identify any stories or people who inspired you or served as models for the people and events in this book?
For me, the inspiration really came from the stories I had already written, and then adding the unique twist of another genre that sets the Books of Umber apart. I tend not to use real people as models for my characters – bits and pieces of people, but rarely an actual person that I know. For me, characters start with a distinguishing trait – shy, exuberant, cranky, things like that – and then other more complex layers of personality are added the more I think about them.

What specific idea led you to tell this story?
When I was writing The Brave Apprentice, probably around 2004, I included a scene where someone refers to a historian named Umber who has written about monstrous creatures. I just pulled that name out of nowhere. But the name, and more importantly the idea of a sort of ‘paranormal investigator’ in a fairy tale world, stuck with me. That was five years ago, and the story has been growing in my head ever since, even while I was writing books like The Mirror’s Tale.

What was the last piece that clicked into place before you knew this story was going to "work"?
It was not enough for Umber to run around investigating the weird and monstrous – he needed a quest of his own. That arrived in the form of the young hero Happenstance, who is just as important to the story as Umber. Once I figured out the back story and destiny of Hap, and how that intersected with Umber’s past, I had my story arc.

What rules did you set for yourself to guide your decision-making as the story unfolded? For example: This character must never be allowed to ____, etc.
I don’t know that I think of it this way as I write, but certainly there are certain traits that particular characters will exhibit. Keeping characters true to themselves is crucial – if everyone is working toward their own goal, the story can almost write itself. But there are other ‘rules’ at play I suppose – for example, the kind of knowledge that the amnesiac Hap exhibits is a very specific type of knowledge, as readers of the book will discover. And there are limits to his powers, which are specific in my mind.

Have you given a detailed backstory to many of your characters, including information the books may never reveal?
For certain characters, I definitely conceive a backstory. But it’s a fluid, unofficial thing, which I will revise internally as needed to suit the evolving story. Those things are revealed as needed. And if the character’s personal history isn’t essential to the story, I don’t bring it up.

How important will the background of characters such as Sophie and Oates be in upcoming books?
I don’t want to say too much but I will say this: In the second book, Sophie’s background – where she came from and why her hand is missing – will be revealed, and are very important to the plot.

Is it my imagination, or does the scene at the palace (with all the tension between Umber and the three princes) foreshadow troubles to come?
The first book is an adventure unto itself but it also introduces the players and sets the table for the rest of the story. A lot happens in book two, and the princes play a large part. So that’s not your imagination, lots of trouble ahead.

What is your general theory of magic as it operates in Umber's world?
There is no magic where Umber comes from. In the world where this story takes place, magic is just like technology. It can be used to improve the world and make lives better, or it can be used by wicked people for wicked reasons. But while technology is scientific and predictable, magic is mysterious and unpredictable.

Where would Umber draw the line between what technologies he can and cannot reveal to the people of Kurahaven?
Umber is extremely cautious about his inventions – for obvious reasons, given where he came from. He wants to uplift, enlighten and improve.

Will the elopement of Smudge's brother Caspar become more important in later books?
Caspar took off with all of the information about the Meddlers – you will meet him before long and find out where he’s been. (And just wait until you do!)

Was the storm that hit Kurahaven in this book entirely natural, or was there some magic behind it?
That was Mother Nature at her worst, and not a magical occurrence.

What can you tell us about the kingdom of Kurahaven - its extent, what else it contains besides the port city, etc.?
Kurahaven is the chief city of the kingdom of Celador. It’s the true source of the kingdom’s wealth, and it sits at the northernmost point of the kingdom on the Rulian Sea. Aside from a few islands and ports near and far, the rest of the kingdom sprawls south. The great forest, which provides lumber for its vast shipbuilding enterprises, lies at the heart of the kingdom. By the way, that forest is the same scary place where my story The Eye of the Warlock took place. Farther south, the borders are defined by mountains and other natural features – but it hardly matters in those sparsely populated hinterlands.

Will we see more creatures like the Tyrant Worm?
Lots of creatures ahead! There are more beasties in Book Two than in any story I’ve written – including some really creepy ones.

Where does Hoyle live, and will we see more of her?
Hoyle, who presides over Umber’s business interests and is the ultimate capitalist, would certainly have a home in the residential area, but knowing her often sleeps on a cot right at the Umber Shipping Company offices.

Besides Umber and Hap, who is your favorite character in this book?
This story is chock full of characters that I really enjoy depicting. Oates is great fun though, with his uncompromising honesty.

How did you dream up the Creep?
The creative process is often unexplainable. Without revealing too much: There’s something very distinctive about the Creep that makes him, for me, an especially horrible villain. That unique trait is born out of necessity, since I wanted to avoid comparisons to other cloaked figures that appear in other works of fantasy. So I ask myself, ‘What can I do with this guy that’s different?’ and wait for inspiration to strike.

What part of this book was the most fun to write?
The action scenes are always the easiest and most fun for me. The words fly fast and furious.

What part of this book was the most difficult to write?
Exposition is the hardest for me – when a couple of characters have a conversation that will deliver crucial information to the reader. It takes extra work to do that in an economical and interesting way.

While you were writing this book, what were you most tempted to do instead of writing?
So many answers to this question! Free time is the hardest thing to come by for me. I was most tempted to sleep, watch a great movie, or get some fresh air.

Do you ever have dreams or odd incidents in real life that your mind connects with this book?
No dreams that connected with this particular book. A dramatic event that happened in my childhood works its way into the story, mostly the second book. When I’m writing a story, I’m very tuned into everything I see, hear and learn, and little bits and pieces can find their way into the story.

Is there an idea you would like thoughtful young readers to take away from this book?
What you do with your abilities really matters.

IMAGES: Illustrations from Happenstance Found, courtesy of P. W. Catanese; a photo of the author. Check out the Books of Umber website and the author's website for more information.