Interview: Patricia Briggs and Anne Bishop chat each other up
We at HEA pretty much jumped up and down and squee'd so loud the neighbors called the cops when we found out Anne Bishop and Patricia Briggs were willing to interview each other just for us. They're heading out on book tour together in March for events on the West Coast and in the Midwest to promote their new releases, Patricia's Dead Heat (Alpha and Omega #4) and Anne's Vision in Silver (the Others #3). You can find the March 3-7 tour schedule below the interview, which we won't keep you from any longer …
Patricia Briggs: Anne, you are well known for writing edgy fantasy with highly original world building and character-driven plots: The same is absolutely true of your urban fantasy. Why did you decide to switch from fantasy into the urban fantasy genre?
Anne Bishop: My brain didn't make a switch. It just said, "We're going to build a new world with cars and movies and pizza. And it will be populated with predators who rule the world and can take the form of other predators, including humans, who are not at the top of the food chain. Cool!" I ended up creating that world because somewhere around 2006 or 2007, I was reading paranormal romance and urban fantasy stories about werewolves and vampires and thought it would be fun to write a story like that. So you could say that reading Moon Called planted one of the seeds that eventually led to the creation of the Others and their world. <g>
Actually, I'm not sure I could write a straight urban fantasy anymore than I could write a straight contemporary story. I would end up being intimidated by all the small details. So I take that quarter step to the side to build an Earth that is familiar but not quite because the whole of its history would have changed. And that allows me to pick and choose the details that are important to give Namid the layers and texture to feel real.
How do you feel about the texturing of details that you do in the Mercy Thompson world? Love research? Hate it?
Patricia: Hah hah hah. If Moon Called played any role in inspiring your desire to write the Others series, I am stoked. I look outside at my horses and say, "Hmm, are you Fog? Are you Twister?" They just look back at me with amusement in the depths of their eyes. Maybe they are saying, "If you were Anne Bishop, you would know!"
I find research ... maybe it is better to say that research mostly finds me. I love to discover the ends of threads and follow them to the beginnings. So I look at the Columbia River and say, "I bet you have a monster." After a little reading and poking about on the Internet — of course there are stories of a monster in the river. And someone, maybe a thousand years ago, carved the monster into a rock that was in a valley filled with petroglyphs. But in 1957 the river was dammed, and only a few petroglyphs were saved before the valley filled with water ... and one of those was a portrait of the river monster. How is that not fun? We (my husband and I) are also building a carousel (actually two, but that's a long story) with wooden horses and dragons. A lot of that adventure will make it into the books, one way or another. I do love being a writer ...
Anne: Hmm. I am going to have to reconsider the "R" word. Whenever someone has asked me if I do "R" for my books, I've said no because "R" meant stuffing your brain with facts that someone will decide are Not Correct when you venture to use them. The "R" word has a lot of negative energy for me, can you tell? So I don't "R." Except, like you, I follow threads, meandering through a little of this and a bit of that. I follow links in the word processor's dictionary, learning about words and finding names (like Erebus and Tethys — you haven't met her yet), watching DVDs about wolves and crows and bison, and reading about them, too. But that's just *learning stuff*; that's not "R." That said, being able to learn about everything and anything is one of the perks of being a writer. That and being able to justify all those books on multiple subjects that you buy because they might come in handy someday.
Patricia: I find one of the reoccurring themes in your writing is the difference between men and women. Sometimes it is a source of conflict, as in the Black Jewels and the Tir Alainn books, but it is also present in the Ephemera books where it feels more like a facet of the world building. And yet you avoid making the women the force of good and the men evil or visa versa. Was that a deliberate choice? That is to say, did you plan that part ahead of time?
Anne: In archetypes, there is the Nurturer and the Warrior. Different kinds of strengths that, ideally, complement each other and are equally respected. The collision and complement of those archetypes was a choice in the Black Jewels books, although many of the characters, regardless of gender, embraced both, letting the Nurturer or the Warrior become dominant as needed. I think that belief is now a part of who I am, so it's part of the foundation of everything I do. Is it a deliberate choice now when I'm building a story? Not so much. It's an intrinsic part of the fun; it's what I look for as characters come together, both in my own stories and in the stories I read. I see that complement and collision in Mercy and Adam's relationship, which is one reason why I read their stories with such gleeful anticipation.
Patricia: Themes are cool, aren't they? I discover them sometimes years later, twisting around in my stories just as though I'd meant to put them there. Sometimes I see them early and put a little polish on them — but the best of them just happen. Some themes resonate more with me than others, those appear more often. Justice is a big one for me — and for you. One of my favorite bumper sticker pearls of wisdom is: If you want peace, work for justice.
And you mentioned archetypes. I love archetypes and their lesser cousins the stereotypes. They save me so much work. Like the fat jolly innkeeper — if I make him mean instead of jolly then *BOOM*. In half a paragraph or less instead of a stereotype there is a character who feels well rounded without either the reader or I having to work too hard.
So maybe we should end this here with brief blurbs about our books?
Anne: You think we should stop now so we don't run out of things to talk about on the book tour? ROTFL.
Patricia: <grin> I don't think that'll be a problem. So here's a blurb for Dead Heat:
The Alpha and Omega books take place in a world where the werewolves have admitted their existence to the public, though they haven't been entirely honest about a lot of things. Charles Cornick is the Boogieman of the werewolves. His job is to make sure, by whatever means necessary, that the violence inherent in the nature of the werewolf stays secret from the humans. His wife Anna's diplomatic capabilities have made his job more interesting, if not always easier.
In Dead Heat (Alpha and Omega #4), Charles and Anna travel to Arizona to say goodbye to a dying friend, only to find themselves in pursuit of someone or something who has been stealing children for a very, very long time. Set against the backdrop of the Scottsdale Arabian horse industry, a personal errand turns into a crisis that could pit the werewolves against the whole of the fae, turning a cold war into an open battlefield.
Anne: Werewolves and Arabians. It's like chocolate and peanut butter — a delicious combination. <g>
The Others books take place in an alternate Earth where the earth natives have been the dominant predators throughout the world's history and humans are nowhere near the top of the food chain. But humans are clever and resilient, if not always wise, and have made some bargains with the Others in order to survive. When they forget their place, the clash between humans and earth natives tends to be lethal.
In Vision in Silver (The Others #3), the Others have freed the cassandra sangue to protect the blood prophets from exploitation, not realizing their actions would have dire consequences. While Meg Corbyn and Simon Wolfgard search for a way to help these girls survive, their lives and the future of Lakeside are threatened by a fanatic faction, while the growing war across the Atlantik casts a shadow long enough to reach Meg and her friends.
Patricia: When I begged an early copy, nearly the best part was listening to my friend and my daughter discuss (with growly voices) who got to read it after me. I say "nearly" because the book was freaking awesome.
Anne: And there we are.
Patricia: This signing tour is going to be really, really fun.
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BOOK TOUR SCHEDULE
March 3: 7 p.m. at University Book Store, 4326 University Way NE in Seattle.
March 4: 7 p.m. at Powell's, 3415 SW Cedar Hills Blvd. in Beaverton, Ore.
March 5: 7:30 p.m. at Mysterious Galaxy, 5943 Balboa Ave. Suite 100 in San Diego.
March 6: 7 p.m. at Barnes & Noble, 721 Gravois Road in Fenton, Mo.
March 7: 4:30 p.m. at Murder By the Book, 2342 Bissonnet St. in Houston.
Find out more about Patricia and Anne and their books at www.patriciabriggs.com and www.annebishop.com.