All tagged conversation

Angela Slatter and GennaRose Nethercott: in conversation

Alexandra Pierce
conversation

Angela Slatter and GennaRose Nethercott have both written fairy tale and fairy-tale-adjacent novels and short stories. I asked them to chat with me, and each other, about those choices and why authors and readers enjoy them and the tropes being explored.

YOU ARE BOTH CLEARLY INTERESTED IN FAIRY TALES AND FOLK TALES, BROADLY UNDERSTOOD, AND USE IDEAS AND THEMES FROM THEM (AS WELL AS SPECIFIC CHARACTERS) IN YOUR WORK. WHAT DO YOU THINK GIVES SUCH TALES CULTURAL ENDURANCE AND RESONANCE?

Angela: For me it starts with my memories of my mother telling me stories as a kid, bedtime reading was frequently Grimms’ fairy tales and Hans Christian Anderson’s works, as well as books of myths and legend. So that kind of created a rich treasury of stories in my mind and I still draw on those things today, and all the weird ideas that have percolated there in the years since.

Ann Leckie and Arkady Martine: in conversation

Alexandra Pierce
conversation

Ann Leckie and Arkady Martine have both written novels that focus on empires, imperialism, and colonialism, and how people react to and work within those structures. I asked them to chat with me, and each other, about their decisions and thought-processes.

You have both written work that explicitly deals with (some of) the consequences of imperialism, on a galactic scale. What is it about the concept of empire that made you want to explore it in fiction? 

Ann: Honestly, I didn't start out wanting to write about empire. I started out wanting to write a space opera.

Celia Lake and Freya Marske: in conversation

Alexandra Pierce
conversation

Freya Marske and Celia Lake have both written novels about magical societies existing in secret, parallel to the non-magical world, set in Edwardian England. I asked them to chat with me, and each other, about their choices regarding magic systems, Edwardian England, and other aspects of their novels…

SI: The Last Binding trilogy, and some of the Albion books, are set in versions of Edwardian England. What is it about that time and that place that attracted you? 

Freya: I have a few answers to this, ranging from frivolous to serious.