Category Archives: Writing

Continuing our discontinuous series of “blog tour” posts featuring fellow members of the Codex Writers online community.

Today we conclude our interview with Bradley Beaulieu, author of The Winds of Khalakovo. Read yesterday’s interview here.

(Winds of Khalakovo cover art. Click to enlarge.)

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What was the biggest surprise you got out of working on The Winds of Khalakovo? Is there anything in particular you hope your readers get out of it?

I suppose the biggest surprise is just how much of our world made it into the book. I was getting into politics just when I was getting into the thick of this book, and some of it crept in. The struggles in the Middle East certainly show up. And that was a surprise in a way. But on the other hand, how can it not? The events of our time affect me — they affect us all — so in some ways I imagine it’s impossible to keep those things out (assuming you’re writing a sweeping story with a lot of political implications).

I tried to be very careful not to pass judgment in the book, however. I don’t want my writing to be didactic. If it happens to illuminate some condition in our world and starts a discussion, I’m fine with that, but the story and the world come first. They are their own. They are not of our world, so I wanted them to be insular from it. By the same token (I know this sounds like I’m backtracking, but I’m really not!) if some of the issues we’re facing today came up in the story naturally, I didn’t try to quash them. I let them be and allowed them to play out as the world and politics and characters dictated.

It’s a fine line, I think. One of my favorite writers is Tim Powers, and I’ve heard him say at a few conventions that he never tries to say anything in his writing. He gets laughs with that line, and I know it’s impossible to take that sentiment literally, but I feel exactly like he does. I’m not trying to say anything with my novels. But just as certainly as I’m not consciously trying, those things that are important to me or that I’m trying to explore will naturally come up in the writing whether I want them to or not.

So this was probably the biggest surprise: the exploration of this saying nothing while saying things. It was a fun thought experiment to consider it more fully as I was writing and also while editing, just what the book was about and whether or not I had let my views come too front-and-center.

As for what I hope readers take from the novel, I would say this: that many of our conflicts — be they personal or political — come from a simple lack of understanding and an allowance of credibility to those who speak the loudest. I think it’s important to try, as much as we’re able, to see the other side of a conflict. Perhaps if we do, we might find that unscalable differences are not so difficult to climb after all. Though again, I wasn’t trying to say these things; I simply think that this is one of the themes that played throughout the novel.

What’s next for you … and what did you learn from The Winds of Khalakovo that you’re applying to it?

Well, I’m contracted for two more books. I’m in the final stages (thank goodness) of the first draft of Book 2, The Straits of Galahesh. Book 3 is bubbling around in my hindbrain now, but it’s starting to become more clear. I’m really looking forward to finishing these books, not because they wear on me (they don’t), but because I’m anxious to simply have the arc completed. Much as Tolkien considered The Lord of the Rings one book (and it was), I consider The Lays of Anuskaya one book, one story. It’ll be nice to have that wrapped up and out in the world.

Beyond this, I have a science-fantasy in mind, tentatively titled The Days of Dust and Ash. Think Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind meets The Coldfire Trilogy. I’m really excited about this story, because it’s a departure from what I’ve written in the past, though it will still be fantastic and wide in scope. The story focuses on a young girl who is summoned from the dust, a global consciousness that was created as the last great age of technology fell under a nanite plague.

One thing I’m certainly bringing to this next project is the notion of using artwork to advise the story. I’ve already collected a dozen or so sci-fi, ghostly images that have helped me to refine the “technology” of the dust — white magic, if you will — and ash — black magic. I’ll also use the fractal mapper again. The story will take place on a water-poor world, and mostly in salt flats, in particular. The ash — the force of evil — has trouble closing in on the pockets of the world that are covered in salt. But as the story opens, the ash is slowly exerting itself, turning back the tide against the small pockets of humanity, creating a pressure cooker for those that have somehow managed to remain alive through the global catastrophe.

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The Winds of Khalakovo is due out in April 2011 from Night Shade Books.

Among inhospitable and unforgiving seas stands Khalakovo, a mountainous archipelago of seven islands, its prominent eyrie stretching a thousand feet into the sky. Serviced by windships bearing goods and dignitaries, Khalakovo’s eyrie stands at the crossroads of world trade. But all is not well in Khalakovo. Conflict has erupted between the ruling Landed, the indigenous Aramahn, and the fanatical Maharraht, and a wasting disease has grown rampant over the past decade. Now, Khalakovo is to play host to the Nine Dukes, a meeting which will weigh heavily upon Khalakovo’s future.

When an elemental spirit attacks an incoming windship, murdering the Grand Duke and his retinue, Prince Nikandr, heir to the scepter of Khalakovo, is tasked with finding the child prodigy believed to be behind the summoning. However, Nikandr discovers that the boy is an autistic savant who may hold the key to lifting the blight that has been sweeping the islands. Can the Dukes, thirsty for revenge, be held at bay? Can Khalakovo be saved? The elusive answer drifts upon the Winds of Khalakovo …

(Map of the region of Khalakovo. Click to enlarge.)

Learn more about Bradley and The Winds of Khalakovo on his web site, http://quillings.com/.

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Continuing our discontinuous series of “blog tour” posts featuring fellow members of the Codex Writers online community.

Today our guest is Bradley Beaulieu, author of The Winds of Khalakovo, the first of three planned books in The Lays of Anuskaya series. In addition to being an L. Ron Hubbard Writers of the Future Award winner, Brad’s stories have appeared in various other publications, including Realms of Fantasy Magazine, Orson Scott Card’s Intergalactic Medicine Show, Writers of the Future 20, and several anthologies from DAW Books. His story, “In the Eyes of the Empress’s Cat,” was voted a Notable Story of 2006 in the Million Writers Award.

(Bradley Beaulieu.)

The story of how you got the idea for the book from looking at paintings in the art gallery is fantastic, but how long was it between first conceiving The Winds of Khalakovo and actually sitting down to write it?

When my wife and I went to the National Gallery in Edinburgh and saw all those great paintings, I decided that my next project (which eventually became The Winds of Khalakovo) would include the artwork I bought in postcard form. However, at that time I was working on another novel. I was finishing up a draft and knew that it would need at least one more to make it work. (As it turned out, that book went through at least four full drafts after my trip to the UK, but who’s counting?) I was also working heavily on short fiction at the time. I went to Orson Scott Card‘s Literary Bootcamp the summer following, and Clarion the summer following that. Suffice it to say that the story didn’t really get my full attention until around 2007, several years after spying the artwork. But that was great, actually. I was learning quite a lot about writing, which helped me to take on such a large project. Plus, the delay afforded my hindbrain to work on the story without the pressure of actually writing it. It was nice for the pressure to be off, so to speak, but of course the pressure was “on” in other pieces of fiction I was working on at the time.

One thing I haven’t really talked about much (yes, this is an exclusive!) is that I also used a piece of software to help me with the world building. The software is called Fractal Terrains, and it allows you to specify some basic parameters about a world — things like diameter, water cover, mountain height and ocean depth, the number of moons — and the software will then render a world for you. I played with the software a lot, altering the parameters and retrying until I had something I liked. I knew that I wanted a world with archipelagos. The rendering of the terrain and the channels beneath the ocean surface ended up advising me on the magic of the world. It also created the geo-political structure. I circled the island chains until I had what I wanted: a loose collection of archipelagos that depended upon one another for survival. These became the nine Duchies of the Grand Duchy of Anuskaya, and two of my main characters became a Prince of one duchy and a Princess of another. It also made sense to me that there might have been an indigenous people on these islands that were pushed out by the expansion of the Grand Duchy. And from this flowed both the Aramahn, the peaceful peoples that originally inhabited the islands, and the Maharraht, the warlike splinter of the Aramahn that wish to push the Grand Duchy from the shores of the islands at any cost.

So the time period in this case, about three years, really helped me to prepare for this book, because it’s big. I don’t think it would have turned out nearly as well if I had just launched into it after finding that artwork. I also wouldn’t have been as deep and complex. All in all, though I was anxious to get to the project, I’m glad life and other things got in the way.

How long did it take to complete The Winds of Khalakovo? How did the creative stages progress?

As I mentioned above, I hit the pause button from 2004 to 2007. Another bit of serendipity struck in terms of the timing for the initial draft. I went to Clarion in 2006 (the last of the Michigan Clarionites!) and my writing took a major leap forward. As anyone who goes to one of the longer writing workshops will tell you, it takes months, and even years, to grok everything that you only have a chance to learn on a surface-level at Clarion. So I’m glad I had wrapped up Clarion and written a few short stories afterward before launching into The Winds of Khalakovo.

But I digress … I started in earnest in 2007 and I finished the first readable draft (which was probably three full passes on the manuscript) by late 2008/early 2009. It was at this point (and it was perfect timing) that Sarah Kelly, with whom I’d attended Clarion, was firing up “Starry Heaven,” a writing workshop based on the Blue Heaven workshop format. I jumped at the chance, because I knew I needed more eyes on Winds. I went that summer and got great advice from the other attendees. I’m thoroughly convinced that it pushed the manuscript over the top. Might it have been picked up anyway? Maybe, but I wouldn’t have liked my chances, and in any case it’s a much better book for my having gone.

I took the rest of 2009 after the workshop and polished up the manuscript, and when I was attending World Fantasy that year in San Jose, I approached Jeremy Lassen at Night Shade Books. He agreed to take a look at it, and roughly four months later, I had an offer for the trilogy.

(Winds of Khalakovo cover art. Click to enlarge.)

What major obstacles did you have to overcome while working on The Winds of Khalakovo, and how did you overcome them?

Well, the biggest obstacle is life. I have a full time job working with enterprise software — installing, training, customizing. I know, I know — I can hear the yawns already — but it’s something I enjoy, and it does indeed pay the bills. Still, the day job certainly has a way of cutting into the writing time. As does having a wife, and two children, and family, and friends, and hobbies, and… Well, you get the idea.

It’s tough. It’s difficult to sit back in my chair at night when everyone’s gone to bed already and get my hour of writing in. But I’ve cultivated the practice, and although I would never call it easy, there is certainly a sense of pride after the session is over, even if the words weren’t particularly great. That’s largely how I do it. Sure, there was some motivation in looking at the big picture: having a book published someday. But that’s really hard to use over and over again for the day-to-day grind of writing. So I allow myself to feel the pride that comes with simply doing. Some day (hopefully soon) there will be other rewards, like readers telling you how much they liked your book, but I’ll always stick to the mantra of getting in my hour of writing each day, which generally yields me 1,000 words.

Note that I didn’t address what it’s like now, which is a whole other thing. I’m under contract for two books now, and so that’s incentive in and of itself. It helps in a way. It’s more pressure than I had before, sure, but it’s good pressure. It’s making me push myself to create words, but also to try to live up to what I’ve started in Book 1. I’ve laid down a contract with the reader in Book 1, and I understand that I have to live up to it in Books 2 and 3. I hope I can do it. I’m certainly trying. And that goal helps me to continue to make the time for writing while life continues around me, and to me, and through me.

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Tomorrow we will conclude our conversation with Bradley. Meanwhile, you can read more about him and The Winds of Khalakovo on his web site, http://quillings.com/.

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The third installment in our discontinuous series of “blog tour” posts featuring fellow members of the Codex Writers online community.

Today our guest is Elaine Isaak, who dropped out of art school to found Curious Characters, designing original stuffed animals and small-scale sculptures, and to follow her bliss: writing. Elaine is the author of The Singer’s Crown (Eos, 2005), and sequels The Eunuch’s Heir (Eos, 2006) and The Bastard Queen (Swimming Kangaroo, 2010).

(The Bastard Queen cover art. Click to enlarge.)

Beloved bastard of an unloved king, Fiona will do anything to please her father, even studying magic though she never shows more than a spark of talent. But the plague that grips their city sends her to work with the dying, as enmity builds between the two peoples her father has brought together.

Struggling to find a cure for the plague, Fiona discovers that its emergence is no coincidence—and that her scorned suitor may be leading a conspiracy that will end in genocide. Even her father wears a false face, and every new tragedy reveals another secret set to shatter her life and her kingdom.

A mother of two, Elaine also enjoys rock climbing, taiko (Japanese drumming), weaving and exotic cooking — when she can scrape the time together.

(Elaine Isaak. Click to enlarge.)

Given all her many activities, we appreciate Elaine taking time out to answer our questions about how she turned her idea for The Bastard Queen into reality.

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How long was it between first conceiving The Bastard Queen and actually working on it in earnest? What did you do in the interim?

This one had to wait. It’s the third in a generational series (that is, they build on each other, but they’re not a single story-arc). I had finished the first and second, but hadn’t sold them yet. While I had some fun ideas for a third, it seemed foolish to work more on something I wouldn’t be able to sell for a while. Instead, I had a dramatic idea for a different series which I started in the meantime, giving myself a second book to offer if my first series didn’t sell. Ultimately, it did, and I had the chance to write The Bastard Queen — it was definitely informed by some of the research I was doing for the new books.

How long did it take to complete The Bastard Queen? How did the work progress, from research to publication?

The research happened during the two year interval that it took to sell the first books, so I was able to write quickly once I hit the ground. I think it was about 9 months of writing and my revision. Publishing was another matter because of some difficulties with the original publisher, then a change of agent. I finally sold the book to a small press, but it took about another two years. They have a very professional approach to editing, and we worked on revision for another year, then production.

What major obstacle did you have to overcome while working on The Bastard Queen? How did you overcome it?

I changed publishers and agents, leaving this book sort of dangling in the breeze. After much consideration, focusing on my new series made more sense than trying to place this book with another big publisher. Naturally, that brought difficulties of its own, including a problem printing the covers that almost forced a delayed release (and would have ruined the promotional plan I had put in place).

Writing books, for me, is easy. The business of writing, not so much.

What was the biggest surprise you got out of working on The Bastard Queen, and what do you hope your readers get out of it?

This was the first time I had written a full-length novel with a female protagonist. For me, it was a process of overcoming my own perception that, well, boys have more fun. Especially after the more adventure-based The Eunuch’s Heir, it took me a little while to really inhabit Fiona and her concerns.

In general, I want to create worlds and societies that have more realistic complications than are often associated with fantasy fiction. I like to work in the ambiguous spaces where good guys might do bad things.

What’s your next project … and what did you learn from The Bastard Queen that you’re applying to it?

Interestingly, it’s sort of the other way around. The dark historical fantasy series I’ve recently sold is the one I started when I set aside The Bastard Queen. As a result, my “new” work actually informed this older one rather than the other way around. But I think exploring some of the issues of class and race that crop up in The Bastard Queen, and trying to achieve a stronger level of realism, will serve me well as I move ahead with the new books.

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We’re glad we had this opportunity to showcase Elaine Isaak and her new book The Bastard Queen. And don’t forget about the two books ahead of it in the series:

(Cover art for The Singer’s Crown and The Eunuch’s Heir. Click to enlarge.)

Visit www.ElaineIsaak.com to read sample chapters of The Bastard Queen and find out why you do NOT want to be her hero.

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