Author interview with Marie Brennan
Author bio:
Marie Brennan is a former
academic with a background in archaeology, anthropology, and folklore, which she now puts to
rather cockeyed use in writing fantasy. She lives in the San Francisco
Bay Area, where she spends her time practicing piano, studying
karate, and playing a variety of role-playing games.
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Hi
Marie, welcome over to The Book Plank and for taking your time to answer these
few questions for us.
BP: First off, could you give us a short introduction as to who
Marie Brennan is? What are your likes/dislikes and hobbies?
MB: I'm a fairly big gaming nerd -- not so much video games (though I
love the Dragon Age series) as tabletop and live-action roleplaying games. I
actually studied those in graduate school, before leaving to write full-time. I
also have been practicing karate for the last five years or so.
BP: You have been writing for many years already, do you still know
the moment when you decided that you wanted to become a full time author?
MB: Oh, absolutely. It was after I read Diana Wynne Jones'
<i>Fire and Hemlock</i> for the first time. I was nine or ten, and
when I put the book down, I knew I wanted to be an author. I'd made up stories
before then, but that's the first time I remember wanting to tell stories for
other people to read.
BP: You are well known for you Doppelganger and Onyx Court series,
Memoir by Lady Trent is something completely different, what gave you the idea
behind the story of Lady Trent?
MB: It grew out of two things: the Dragonology calendar (which
is sort of a field guide to different kinds of dragons) and Todd Lockwood's
anatomical illustrations for the D&D gaming book Draconomicon. They
gave me the notion of doing after dragons to study them, rather than to kill
them and take their treasure.
BP: Were you able to use any previous experience from your earlier
series when you were writing the Memoir by Lady Trent books?
MB: The
Memoirs segued fairly naturally out of With Fate Conspire, which is the
last book of the Onyx Court series, because that one takes place in the
Victorian period. Certainly the research habits I learned in working on that
series have come in handy, though this time around I don't have to be 100%
faithful to a specific historical reality.
BP: A Natural History of Dragons got some rave reviews, had you
expected the book to be such a success?
MB: I certainly hoped it would be! But authors hope that for every
book, of course. I felt like it had a chance to tap into a certain zeitgeist:
the current enthusiasm for steampunk-type stuff, an unconventional woman for
the protagonist, and so on. I also think it benefited from having a bit of
crossover appeal for people who like historical fiction or science fiction --
the latter in particular. Isabella is a scientist, and so although I do think
of the books as fantasy, the mentality is in some ways science fictional
instead.
BP: The Tropic of Serpents is out June 20th this year, if you
had to sell your book with a single sentence, how would it go?
MB: Isabella comes into her own as a natural historian, journeying to a
lethal jungle to study the dragons there, and nearly getting herself killed (as
she often does).
BP: Which chapter/scene did you enjoy writing the most?
MB:
The big sequence at the Great Cataract. I don't
want to be more specific, because it's quite late in the book and would have
spoilers, but the image of that place and my ideas for what she would find
there made me look forward to that the whole way through the book.
BP: The Tropic of Serpents is the second book in the Memoir by Lady
Trent series, have you already mapped out how many books will follow?
MB: Yes, it will be a five-book series in total. As both a reader and a
writer, I prefer stories that come in bounded arcs, rather than being just an
ongoing string of episodes. I'm building up toward the big discovery, the one
that made Isabella really famous.
BP: Do you have any other projects that you would like to pursue
after The Tropic of Serpents is published?
MB: I have a contract with Tor for a stand-alone novel after I complete
this series, and while we may change our plans between now and then, right now
the intent is for me to write a book called The Changing Sea, which I
call my interdimensional Flying Dutchman pirate novel. It should be fun!
BP: And just lastly, can you give us a sneak peak as to what will be
in store for the readers of the Lady Trent series?
MB: The third book, Voyage of the Basilisk, will be coming out
next year. As you might guess from the title, Isabella gets on a ship and goes
sailing around the world, Darwin-style, to study dragons in a variety of
different places.
BP: Thank you very much for your time Marie and good luck with your
future writing projects!
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