Author bio:
Glenda was born in Western Australia, the
daughter of a farmer. She was educated at the University of Western Australia,
where she obtained a degree in history and a diploma in education. Married to a
Malaysian scientist, she lived for several decades in Malaysia, including a
stint in Borneo, where she was actively involved in rainforest and bird
conservation. She has also lived in Austria and Tunisia, but has now settled on
the coast of Western Australia, not far from an osprey nest.
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Hi
Glenda, Welcome over at The Book Plank and for taking your time to answer these
few questions for us.
GL: Thanks for having me
along!
BP: First off, could you give us a short introduction as
to who Glenda Larke is? What are you hobbies, likes and dislikes?
GL: I’m an Australian by
birth, and it’s now also my country of residence. However, I’ve spent the
greater part of my adult life elsewhere, in Malaysia, Austria and Tunisia. The
two great passions in my life, writing and birdwatching, date from childhood
interests and ultimately became twin careers much later in life: fantasy author
and working on the conservation of rainforest avifauna. In between times, I
taught English as a second language... Dislikes? People who don’t understand
you cannot legislate belief.
BP: You have written quite a few books before, the
Watergivers series, Isles of Glory and Mirage Makers series. The Forsaken
Lands, featuring The Lascar’s Dagger as the first book, is your newest series.
What gave you the idea/inspiration behind The Lascar’s Dagger?
GL: For me, inspiration
is always multi-facetted. The plot of the book plays out against a background
of western nations looking at sea trade with an eastern world as a way to
replace cumbersome overland caravans. The trade in spices and bird of paradise
plumes were real parts of our own world history and they inspired parts of my
book.
The
kris (the dagger of the title) is a part of the cultural heritage of my husband
and therefore of my children. The thirty years I spent in Malaysia, during
which I stayed and worked in diverse places--including villages, tropical
islands and rainforests--provided many ideas. As part of my ornithological
work, I saw the intricate dance and heard the glorious songs of some of the
most beautiful birds in the world. I learned to cook with Asian spices and
coconut milk, wear a sarong, speak the language and follow the traditions. Even
though the greater part of this trilogy is set in the western countries of my
world, the plot is both inspired by, and a tribute to, the Asian part of my
life and to my own remarkable Asian family.
BP: Lascar’s Dagger is out next March, if you would have
to sell your book with a single sentence, how would it go?
GL: When cultures clash,
so does the magic...
BP: Having gained a lot of experience with your earlier
books, were you able to use it when you were writing Lascar’s Dagger?
GL: Absolutely. First books often have a special verve or
freshness to them, but experience counts too.
BP: What was the hardest part when you were writing
Lascar’s Dagger? Did you encounter any specific problems?
GL: The hardest part was
to solve a technical problem: in the beginning, the lascar of the title can’t
speak the language of the foreign land he inhabits. When I wrote down his
speech as he might have sounded, he ended up sounding like an idiot. (Having
been in that situation -- a foreigner in a foreign land sounding like an idiot,
three separate times with three different languages -- I sympathise!) The
problem was to convey an intelligent man, but one who can’t speak the language
properly yet.
BP: Besides the hardest part, which chapter/scene did you
enjoy writing about the most?
GL: I loved writing the
very first scene because that was the first one I had clearly in my mind and
much of the rest of the book springs from that one scene. In it, the lascar of
the title encounters the “European” hero of the trilogy for the first time. The
setting is a spice warehouse. They have both separately broken into the
building, and everything goes downhill fast from there...
BP: If you would be given the chance to retract The
Lascar’s Dagger from publishing and make one final adjustment, would you do so?
And if yes, which part and why?
GL: I put a midshipman on
a non-naval ship... I’d correct that mistake. Please ignore that slip-up as you
read, ok? (I’m sure there are other errors; there are always
things that slip past the author, the copy editor and the proof reader.
Always.)
BP: A lot of your books have been nominated for the
Aurealis Awards and have made it to the final round. Did this add pressure when
you were writing your new book The Lascar’s Dagger?
GL: Believe me, awards
are the last thing I think about when I’m writing anything!
BP: The Lascar’s Dagger does draw some influences from
our own history, did you have to carry out any specific research into the
history of the spice trade etc, to keep certain facts correct or to verify
them?
GL: The Forsaken Lands trilogy is neither an historical fantasy nor
an alternative history. It is rather a book set in a fantasy world evocative of
both a period in time (our 17th & 18th centuries) and an age in our history
(the dawn of Western colonial expansion), so yes, it did involve a lot of
research. The world and history of The
Forsaken Lands
is, however, mine.
I
read non-fiction books on spices, the spice trade, birds of paradise and
pre-industrial household crafts; I consulted books on European flowering plants
and freshwater fish. I watched videos on some of those those topics. I went on
board two replica sailing ships, Endeavour and Duyfken.
I studied maps and examined designs and models of ships of the period, and how
they were rigged (there’s one scene where a character has an interesting
encounter up in the rigging of an anchored privateer). I went to several
maritime museums, in particular the wonderful one in Fremantle, where there are
numerous artifacts from the wreck of the Batavia, and parts of the
ship itself. Much of this research was never used -- but, oh, it was
interesting!
BP: The Lascar’s Dagger is the first in a new series.
Have you already mapped out how many books The Forsaken Lands will run?
GL: It’s a trilogy. I’ve
never tried anything larger than that.
BP: Can you give us a short sneak peek as to what we can
expect in the future books of The Forsaken Lands?
GL: Book 1 is almost entirely set in lands my fantasy ‘Europe’.
Book 2 is nearing completion and will probably be titled The Dagger’s Path. It should be out next year.
Half of this volume is set in a place evocative of the spice islands of eastern
Indonesia. (I hope Indonesian/Malaysians will forgive me for borrowing some
words from their language and using them in my fantasy world!). Book 3 brings
the dagger and the lascar back to the ‘European’ side of things for the climax.
BP: Do you have any other projects besides The Forsaken
Lands that you would like to pursue in the near future?
GL: One of these days I
will revisit the world of my first published book, Havenstar.
BP: Everyone enjoys reading and writing fantasy in their
own way, what do you like most about the fantasy genre?
GL: As a reader, fantasy
transports me to another world away from the problems of this one, which means
its entertainment value is terrific. As a writer, fantasy enables me to explore
the limits of human endurance and portray the moral problems of this world
through another lens, which means the portrayal is less confrontational to the
reader. I think it is actually easy to become immersed in a fantasy world than
it is something set in the reality of our own world!
BP: And just lastly, if you would have to give your top 5
favorite books, which would they be?
GL: I have read very
widely through many genres and mainstream fiction, as well as non-fiction, over
a period of decades. There’s far too many favourites to single out five. I can
tell you the last book I read, though, which I adored. It’s written by Karen
Miller, titled The Falcon Throne and due out later
this year. It is the first book in a series entitled The Tarnished Crown. It’s a spectacular, visceral work of epic
fantasy and I suspect it will one of the best books I read all year. And I’d
say that even if she wasn’t a friend of mine!
BP: Thank you for your time Glenda and good luck with
writing the rest of The Forsaken Lands series!
GL: Thanks!
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