Survey Thingit About Writing Projects

[damselfish]

teleidoplex tagged me for that "interview for the book that will be the next big thing." I'm currently working on Queen of Swans, but since I just finished Morgan and I haven't spoken about it much (and the tagline isn't nearly as catchy as "lesbian Swan Lake!") I thought I'd talk about it here.

Maybe later I'll do Queen of Swans, if there's any interest.

So on to Morgan!

1. What is the title of the work-in-progress that you’re hoping will get you Rowling/Meyer/King money?

Wow. I am writing in the wrong genre to make that kind of money. But right now it's "A Dragon of Substance," which I'm not fond of so I still call it Morgan. Book #2 of the trilogy is The Heart of Winter, but I can't come up with a title for the first book to save my life. This is weird since I'm normally quite good at titling things, but Morgan defies titles.


2. Where did you steal this idea?

Nowhere, I came up with it (also I don't get the difference between "where did you steal" and "what were you inspired by" below, so I will discuss inspiration here). I was inspired by books where people ride dragons and the nagging question "if dragons are bigger, smarter, and more powerful than you, why the hell do they let you ride them like ponies at a little kid's birthday?" Also by my fic satirizing when WoW gave players their first dragon mounts, the netherwing drakes. Because they're not real dragons (they're wispy, have a different model from the core dragon flights, and are downtrodden by evil orcs, demons, and other dragons who want to "train" them up right). This history of abuse has rendered the netherwing a-okay with being enslaved, I guess: Onyxien Versus a Bag. While I'd always wondered about the trope, WoW giving players the opportunity to ride a sentient species-- one commonly described as so much cooler than any of the mortal races-- solidified my feelings of "well, that's stupid."

It started as your typical satirical "haha fantasy tropes, amirite?" but it got more serious, until all the serious enveloped everything else and it became a warmfuzzy story of conspiracies, betrayal, slavery, and the question "little boys want to grow up and become dragonriders. What do little dragons want to be when they grow up?"

It plodded along, like a katamari ball that picked up various fantasy feelings along the way, like: Europe analogues. Even US writers will set their fantasy in medieval England. I have never been to those parts of Europe. Spain, Italy, Greece, yes. Not the UK, not France, not Germany, not any of those areas with the black forests and the misty moors that show up in fantasy all the time. I also know diddly about the flora and fauna and geographical features. I you know me, you know I love writing flora and fauna and geographical features.

I do, however, know North America really damn well. I've been lots of places on the continent, seen many unique ecosystems. I can tell you the difference between the Appalachians and the Rockies based on feel alone. I could not tell you what a misty moor looks/feels/sounds like.

So I set my world in a North America analogue, and while at first it was just geography, it quickly took on more American flavors. I couldn't blithely use European folklore, the bedrock of fantasy, in this setting-- things don't make sense because the feelings and origins of many of these myths would be different. So yes, there's elves and dragons, but there's also the Tallywick poised to steal children, and Mademoiselle Lynx, who will kill you if you don't mind your manners around her. It's not lifted straight out of modern-ish American folklore, but it's strongly inspired by various urban legends and things like Taily-po, largely because I have an interest in these things and the feel of this folklore is wildly different from the "fairies" you get in European-based settings.

The hero, Morgan, is from a small mining community, so he's full of this kind of folk knowledge despite spending much of his life at an elite college (where everyone and everything reminded him of his origins) and then with the adventuring, heroic dragonriding cavalier corps. Most of the folklore isn't true, of course, because it's folklore. Magic is science, and there's no such things as slenderlings that will creep out of the cracks in the floor to tear you limb from limb, so put a carpet down, you barbarian. What kind of thug has uncovered floors, you want your feet to freeze? (If I can work my dad's "don't sit on cold [whatever I'm sitting on], you'll get piles" I will be so happy.)

It means that Morgan is in a unique position to spot the gears turning when he sees them, because he's heard the stories before, and analyzes them in the way only an urban legend connoisseur can.

A few throwaway bits in old drabbles-- Morgan graduated from a fancy college, dragons are no longer the rock-boned titans of history, most elves disappeared after the fall-- started building the world around me when I wasn't looking. The college means that there's an academic system more organized and accessible than the medieval world would have had (and far more than high fantasy offers). The dragons are part of a human-run program that breeds them for human's purposes, and like cats, they remember that they were once worshipped, but like dogs, all they want to do is make you happy. "The fall" quickly became the shattering of the world, the ambient levels of magic dropped precipitously, and the spirits, dragons, and elves mostly disappeared after that. It allowed the rise of humans, who were never as good at magic, but in the way of humanity, they're really good at making do.

Because of these North American roots, that meant the world had to look... different from the traditional fantasy I started with. I don't like medieval settings, and this world simply couldn't be medieval (though I could easily plunk medievalness into a North American geography just as easily as Europe). I included magic as a physical force (energy running through subterranean ley-lines) which meant I had to accommodate magic in daily life after a few throwaway comments about home enchantments (because it only makes sense). Since it was so omnipresent, I made the world in the midst of an industrial revolution. I like a lot of steampunk visuals, but I hate 1) pointless machinery, and 2) Victorian stuff. Okay, I like Victorian stuff, but I have a love/hate for them. I want to take their pretties and run away with them.

There are kings and queens, though few of the countries are pure monarchies, and they are all governed by the international cavalier corps, which is like the UN with dragons and shady dealings. I wanted Morgan to be able to watch politics happen up close while still being an outsider, and also question his position as an outsider-observer--he's got a dragon, he's a cavalier, he's having dinner with a queen, he's really an insider. But as someone who tends to hang out on the periphery of the group (I've had friends say that I seem watchful and like I always know what's actually happening), I'm happy to write a protagonist with tendencies similar to mine.

Of course, he isn't that much like me. While he's quiet in social settings and doesn't really like people (but he's a doctor with a great bedside manner), he's a total action hero. He loves jumping into danger. Which doesn't sit so well with the dragon telepathically bonded to him.

Really, the story focuses most on what fascinates me about the telepathic dragonrider stories: you've got this amazing beast in your head. A smart beast. Who loves you unconditionally. What do you do with that? What do you do when their life goals and yours don't match up? What do you do when they point out, logically, that they love you and they don't want to see you get hurt?

I always wondered about dragons. Their whole purpose is to fight, is that what they want? McCaffrey gets a pass (sorta!) because her dragons are smart animals. It's actually DragonLance that made me go WHYYYYYY! Why is Huma riding silver dragons when he's nothing but a liability!? They could go fight and be awesome without him, he's a puny human! (The answer is, of course, nerd wish fulfillment).

3. What genre does your manuscript wear like a coat, and what’s the shockingly skimpy & alluring genre that shows up once you open the book?

Er, fantasy? And more fantasy. It's fantasy all the way down.


4. Which actors would you kidnap and force to play your characters in a movie rendition?

I actually really don't like using real people when I imagine characters, and I don't play the "what actor" game, so I look at this question going "baroo?" None of them, because they're not real people and the pictures in my head are superior!

Only one character ever had a physical analogue, and that's Morgan McKrae.

I had no idea what he looked like for the longest time. Then I had an image, and I was like "yes." Later I saw John Legend and was like yes.



So Morgan looks like John Legend. Who is not an actor. But from that image I was starting to get the demographics of New Kingsland, if Morgan is an everyman. I don't question the images I get of characters, mostly-- sometimes I will be like "well this is X setting so the person should be X" but I usually come up with characters first and build the world around them. I am usually like "it's fantasy! Why's it gotta be all white people all the time!?" because, growing up in Miami, all white folk all the time was what freaked me out about going to Villanova (get off a college campus on the Main Line and... wow). If it's fantasy anyway with made-up social groups who coincidentally have some mannerisms like those of Earth (especially the writer's culture /cough) why not use different groups? The ethnicities aren't the same anyway because the global geography is different! (Don't start me on "Asian people are in fantasy Asia, black people are in fantasy Africa, and those places exist only as ~exotic~ realms for our white hero from fantasy Europe to learn some exotic/primitive wisdom" Just don't.) ...Anyway....

Thrace


Thrace is... see this is where it stops for me, because I have such an image of Thrace, and no one quite matches it. But Ben Whishaw comes kind of close, especially as John Keats. He just needs blue eyes and darker hair.

Daniel Arnolds


Primary antagonist Chief Advisor Arnolds would surely be Idris Elba even if he doesn't match the physical description quite right (Arnolds is darker skinned and has a straight, razor-sharp nose). But who's gonna say no to Idris Elba? Nobody! Sure, he's a bit young (Arnolds is in his 60s) but people in New Kingsland tend to be really well-preserved. He's one of the few actors I know that can pull off the necessary gravitas, being grim and dour one moment and then warm and smiling the next. Also he is exactly the right height to tower over Morgan, which is really the most important part, along with looking good in formal wear and hats.

Ashley Singer


Singer is Morgan's mentor, and at ~60 she's still a leading cavalier (well-preserved, I said). Mages, after all, only get stronger as they get older. teleidoplex said she'd be Alex Kingston, and I gotta say, once she suggested it, I can't unsee it. It's the red hair. And the sassiness. The only person sassier than Singer is her dragon, Vivacia.

Celestine


Thrace's half-sister, fashionista, greatest mage of her generation, and all around ray-of-fucking-sunshine Celestine would be played by Zoe Saldana, no question. I wanted cute, young, bubbly, and she popped to mind straight away. Especially in comparison to her partner, Ferdinand Bovard, who is built like a brick wall and is a man of few words and intense glares. They make a great team.

Dorothea Roise


America Ferrera is pretty much perfect and eerily close to my mental image-- at first I thought "how am I gonna find an actress who isn't too thin?", then America Ferrera! Her face is perfect, so is her hair, and Dorothea would wear the shit outta the dress above. Dorothea is queen of Dunderry, the largest Nation in New Kingsland, and though she's impish and seemingly mercurial, she's got her own reasons for helping Morgan and Thrace out. Most of these reasons begin and end with "spite."

Althana Singer


When the script calls for a supernatural blond, who do you think of first? Right. Tilda Swinton was a no-brainer, both for her looks (pull off an ancient elf professor of theoretical arcana? No problem) and because she could totally manage Althana's sly, smirking momma-knows-best routine. She's Thrace's teacher, and she gives no shits about international law or dragons. She was put on this earth to teach. The real challenge was finding a picture, because the white witch thing was totally unintentional.

Finally: I occasionally think of Cobra Bubbles when I write Ferdinand Bovard (whom Morgan calls "Army Guy"). IDK who he'd be. At all. But Cobra Bubbles makes me smile, so I'm gonna leave this here because I am super tired of this now.


5. When someone demands to know about this brilliant project, what’s the one sentence you give them?

It's a buddy comedy with dragons!


6. If it doesn’t get repped/bought by an agent/editor, are you going to trunk it or self-publish?

I know "self-pub" is the right answer because letting it sit in a trunk to moulder away is wrong, but after spending so long with it, I don't want to bother anymore. Due to inertia it probably would sit in the trunk for a few years, then go self-pub.


7. How long did it take you to write the first draft of the manuscript?


It took me about six months to write the first draft, a semester to edit it, and then another month to edit again.


8. What other books in the same genre do you hope people will compare your story to?

I don't know. It has an urbfan feel in narrative tone, it's a little steampunk in setting, but it's got sword'n'board fantasy bones and... I don't even know how to describe the sensibilities driving all the characters. It has a lot more politics than I intended. I can't compare it to anything but I'm sure the people who've read it can rattle off a bunch of titles.


9. Who or what inspired you to write this book?

I don't see how this is different from the "who did you steal this from" question, so I'm gonna say: teleidoplex and ladycrysiana, along with Pocket Healer, were instrumental in pushing me along and telling me it's not horrible.


10. What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?

There are dragons with rockets in it. And inventive uses of magic to do everyday things, the sort of things you'd think magic would conquer long before love potions (like, idk, functioning sewer systems and hot water).

Also, because Morgan is a doctor of the magical persuasion, he's good with animals. This includes dragons. Vivacia's leering at him has stayed in the draft, but alas that I had to cut this exchange:

Thrace didn’t take so well to having his intellect disparaged. “Hey, I’m plenty—”

“Yeah, you let Mac do all the work,” Marcela said. “I guess that’s pretty smart, since he’s got this weird superpower that makes people want to help him out. How do you do it?”

“…Devilish good looks?” Morgan said.

Marcela normally liked his sense of humor, largely because she used it as a springboard for a good comeback. “Yeah. I bet Honoria can’t wait to get in your pants.”

Honoria giggled in the back of his head, and even Althana seemed to crack a smile.

“The lady’s got taste, what can I say?” Morgan shrugged.

Comments

[anthimeria]

I want this book. Oh, my God, it's like you reached into my head. I love steampunk and mixing mythologies and folklores and characters of color and urban fantasies and politics and all that with dragons sounds like everything I want in a novel.

I've been reading dragon books forever (my mom's McCaffrey got me into fantasy before I was even in middle school) and other fantasy animal companion books and this always BUGGED me. They're just as smart as the human! Why is their culture/identity/agency subsumed by this puny human? You're right that metatextually the answer's nerd/childhood fantasy, but textually it makes no sense. The short story I'm current shopping around asks the same question, but with a different answer--I went with keeping fairly close to the European medieval culture and mythology for the worldbuilding but flipped the power structure. So it's the story of a dragon kidnapping a human and forcing the human to be its partner (they have hands and can get into small spaces and are good for diplomacy with other races).

So . . . Can I read Morgan? Please?

[damselfish]

ehehe, sure you can! PM me with your email and I'll send the current draft. Though a little part of me (most of me) wants to curl up and go "noooooo!"

I worry I've given the wrong impression of the book because I've spent so long selling it as an adventure where Morgan runs across the continent chasing his errant dragon while there is a conspiracy breathing down his neck and meeting interesting people that I rarely get to talk about the things I care about: the setting! The people! I couldn't pack politics in like I wanted to because I need more room for plot and it was all, orz. But you can't sell a book on worldbuilding.

Though I'm so pleased to know that I wrote a book for SOMEBODY. Sometimes I really worry it's not a book for anybody.

McCaffrey, to me, got a pass because the dragons were bred to be what they are, and also it was the 70s and now when I think about the books I can hardly get past the rape let alone the consent issues in Impressing dragons. But it also informed a lot about the breeding dragons in Morgan-- they're made to want to do what they do thanks to human selection rather than genetic tampering, but still. It was really other, more high fantasy settings that made me wonder wtf was going on. Like Kitara was so great that she got her own dragon. I... don't get why Skye (I think that was his name?) needed her, really, and at least they tried to explain that. I also kind of have this issue with Temeraire, because while Novik grapples with it in ways I like (lots of social pressures constraining dragons into that position to not starve and stuff...) it was also a self-defeating system. That's the problem with real social struggle. You don't get that "aha! I am free forever!" moment. You might get legal recognition and then a lifetime of being frowned at, spat on, and avoided (since you're a dragon you are probably not going to be subjected to mob violence).

But I also have issues with the magic pet/animal sidekick trope and this just ties into that. It's the book form of sticking your horse in your bag in a video game. Very rarely is there partner stuff, and a lot of "let's just leave this sentient horse/gryphon/dragon/cat/whatever in the stables while we have human adventures." Which always made me think that the animal sidekick must have a superhuman capacity for patience-- and they never do, in the books, which makes me wonder how this impulsive sidekick can stand in a 8x10 box for days.

[anthimeria]

Yeah, McCaffrey gets something of a pass, and the other issues with the Pern books are so rampant that the Impression thing doesn't come up. But the animal companion thing is everywhere in high fantasy, and it's irritating, and I love your video game analogy.

Though I'm so pleased to know that I wrote a book for SOMEBODY. Sometimes I really worry it's not a book for anybody.

I think those of us who write weird combo-genre and subgenre stuff always have this worry, especially when part of the inspiration is "genre does this thing wrong, and I am going to comment/twist/mess with it". But I am definitely intrigued.

[damselfish]

That's the problem when you grow up in nerd communities and make friends with very specific subsets of nerds (in my case, mostly feminist nerds) because you hear a real demand for something-- and then realize that it's a very niche demand, however loud it seems. It's similar to lesbian fiction: the following is extremely devoted, but veeeery small.