Questions and Answers What are you currently working on? I'm in the planning stages of a novel about a group of people that flee a castle under attack by a foreign enemy. The characters come from a variety of social classes within the castle, from a princess to servants. Forced to travel in the rough, they will undergo several life-altering adventures as they initially seek safe refuge, and later as they work to take back their country from the invaders. This book will include some limited magic and an entirely original race. Who (Fact or Fiction) would you most like to meet, and what would you ask them? My initial reaction was to answer George W. Bush so I could ask him, "What the heck do you think you're doing to the planet?!" But since that would get me arrested as a terrorist, and since you're probably looking for something a little more related to my writing, I guess the answer would be J.R.R. Tolkein. I'd love to pick his brains about writing deeply involved fantasy. See the next answer for why! Is there a book or story you wish you had written? Doesn't any fantasy writer secretly wish they'd written Lord of the Rings? After all, it's the staple, the source, the epitome of fantasy writing. As a young teen, I started writing a very in-depth world and story that involved a made-up language, alphabet, religious system, etc. I was under the misguided notion that I could create a feature-rich world just as Tolkein had. Unfortunately, once I was a bit older, I realized that I hadn't really created a new alphabet so much as a simple substitute for our 26-letter system. The language I had been creating was only slightly more sophisticated. Using my high-school knowledge of French and German, I knew that grammar and syntax varied between languages, so I had built some of that variance into the new language's structure. But really, it too was mostly just English substitution without real coherence. Even aside from the lavish details of Middle Earth, the story in Lord of the Rings is so fundamentally wonderful that it's difficult to not copy it. In fact, too many fantasy novels are just Tolkein rip-offs. But then, it's so hard not to follow the master, isn't it? Is writing your full time occupation, if not what is? It has been my full-time occupation in the past. I used to be a technology reporter back home in Toronto for a trade magazine called Network World Canada. But then I moved to the US to be with my husband. Now here in Las Vegas I have very limited part-time work with an environmental organization trying to stop a proposed high-level nuclear waste dump about an hour away from where we live. They don't have the funding to keep me on full-time, though. I also run my own website and do other volunteer work in the progressive community. When did you first decide that you wanted to be an author? I can't remember not wanting to write. I actually wrote my first little story at the age of five, using an old drawing toy called "Fashion Plates" to do illustrations of a nice girl named "Mary Lamb" who sees that the mean girls who torment her get their comeuppance. I suppose that's indicative of one of my lifelong motivations for story writing: to take troubles in my own life, dramatize them, and then have the character with whom I identify triumph. Because such triumphs were so rare in my youth, I learned to find comfort in daydreams, then put those daydreams down on paper as stories. When did you first feel that you were an author? I knew for sure that I could write once I successfully completed Journalism school. I won an award for a short story in university (available on my website), which also gave me confidence as a writer. Then the job as a tech journalist confirmed me as a paid writer. But I didn't really call myself an author until Sorrows of Adoration was accepted for publication. Are you for or against e-books? I'm indifferent. I don't read them myself, but I appreciate the availability of them for those who want them. I hate reading for a long time from an electronic screen. I'm in front of the computer way too often as it is! Also, there are some sensual scenes in my book that may inspire people to engage in self-gratification, to put it delicately. While sitting in front of a PC might work for men in that regard, many women will find it difficult and/or uncomfortable. Reading in bed, however, might be more conducive to such activity. So unless one has a handheld device to take to the bedroom, ebooks may be somewhat more limited. As a reader do you prefer Science Fiction, Fantasy or Horror? Fantasy, by far. I love well-written, non-formulaic fantasy. I also love fantasy movies, and my husband and I have a Dungeons and Dragons group that meets every Saturday. It's my favourite genre! I have read some sf that I liked, but I've also really hated some of it, including some books that sf fans seem to adore. The worst piece of fiction I've ever had the misfortune of trying to read was a sf novel that is much revered, but I've been flamed so badly for saying I didn't like it that I refuse to name it here! But I do like character-rich sf, like Ender's Game. I haven't read any horror in ages, although a couple books by Iain Banks are on my list of things to read soon. As a teen, I was obsessed with Stephen King and devoured his novels. After a couple of his books that I wasn't too fond of, I grew out of that obsession. Short story, single novel or novel series - which do you think is the best medium for Fantasy? Definitely not short story. At least, I've never read a short story fantasy that I liked, and I certainly couldn't write one. Fantasy requires a lot of building of the world, even if it's not to the Tolkein level of detail. Short stories just don't allow for that kind of breadth. This was actually a minor problem for me, because my publisher wanted a short story to post on their website for free to give readers a sense of my style. Although my novel is fantasy, my short story is sf because I just don't do short fantasy. Sf, on the other hand, can take place anywhere. Thus, in cases where it is not necessary to flesh out the world for purposes of the story (i.e. on a spaceship, in a generic colony somewhere, etc.), one can thrust the reader right into the story and wrap it up quickly without extraneous detail. I don't know whether it's better to have fantasy in a single novel or in a series. I personally avoid getting into any series that has more than a few books and the author is still going. Some of those series start out great but then it becomes clear the writer is just milking what was a good thing. The Pern novels come to mind as an example. The first several Pern novels were great, but then it went downhill pretty quickly once AIVAS came into it. If you've read the series, you know exactly what I mean, and if you haven't, then I won't give a spoiler. That was the only series I really got into, and now I avoid them. I won't go anywhere near Wheel of Time or anything like that. I'm partway through Terry Pratchett's Discworld books, but they're not all one series. They are comprised of a few different storylines within one big world. Even then, I wouldn't have started reading them if not for the fact that my husband owns all of the books anyway. That being said, I don't mind committing to a series if it's small and finite, such as a trilogy that is definitely complete, like Guy Gavriel Kay's Fionavar Tapestry. What are your thoughts on writing for shared world series such as Dragonlance and Star Trek? Not interested. Half of the fun of writing fantasy is getting to make up the world and manipulate it to suit your story. Need a mountain blocking the path? Put one there. Need a river to sail down? Add it. Need a race of people to fulfill a particular part of the storyline? Create them. In a shared world, one must follow the original creator's rules at all times. I would find that suffocating. Plus, I tend not to enjoy reading those kinds of novels because too often they are just the same story over and over with different characters in the main roles. That bores me. What book are you reading at the moment? I've got two on the go: Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right by Al Franken (which is really scary but important, so READ IT!), and Dr. Tatiana's Sex Advice to All Creation: The Definitive Guide to the Evolutionary Biology of Sex by Olivia Judson. The Dr. Tatiana book is hilarious and educational; it takes the form of various species asking for advice about getting a mate, keeping a mate, being more attractive, etc. The fictional Dr. Tatiana answers in a quirky but factual manner while providing actual scientific details on the myriad of ways species reproduce. Do You Always know a Story's Ending When You Begin Writing? Not necessarily for short stories, but definitely yes for novels. I begin the writing process by outlining the instigation for the plot to unfold, a few key points in the middle, and then the ending. Then I flesh that out with more detail and add snippets of dialogue as they occur to me. Then I knit the whole thing together as fill in any gaps. Plug away - what do you have coming out? My first novel, Sorrows of Adoration, has just been released. It's a fantasy with some romantic elements, but it is not a romance book. No "throbbing members" or "heaving bosoms" here. I wrote a story about love that is meant for people who, like me, gag at the thought of reading conventional romance. This novel is available from the publisher, NovelBooks, Inc. (http://www.novelbooksinc.com) or from Amazon.com. Thanks! -- Kimberly Chapman Many thanks Kimberly Relevant Links Kimberly Chapman Main Bibliography Kimberly Chapman's Website NovelBooks, Inc