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Interview - Elaine Cunningham
by Mark S. Deniz
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There are too many
publications to mention, bestselling novels and just now an
anthology with your name as editor upon it, there is much
going on over at chez Cunningham at the mo.
1. What's next for
you, what current projects have you brewing?
“Brewing” is a good
comparison. Writing is a multi-step process, so there’s
always something simmering, fermenting, fomenting, or aging
in oak casks (roughly analogous to the final revision
stage). At present I’ve got three things actively bubbling
away. The folks at Paizo Publishing asked me to write some
serial fiction set in their Pathfinder RPG. This will be a
dark fantasy tale—a novella-length story told in six
episodes. I’m also co-writing a science-based thriller with
Susan Mates, a physician and former research scientist who
writes literary short fiction. This novel is considerably
different from anything either of us has done before, but
we’re having fun and we work amazingly well together. It’s a
low-pressure project, something we work on around our
various deadline obligations. And speaking of which, my
primary focus these days is a fantasy novel which,
unfortunately, I can’t discuss just yet. More news coming
soon, I hope.
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2. I was interested
to hear about the editing project after so long as a writer.
What set that off and what are your opinions of it all?
It started off as a
single story. Years ago, James Lowder asked me to write a
story for an anthology of alternate creation tales. I
decided to write about Lilith, the first wife of Adam. At
the time, I was living in Los Angeles. It was an interesting
experience--every fantasy writer ought to spend some time in
an alternate universe, if at all possible--but I was
frequently struck by how fully The Industry--that's LA-speak
for television and movies--dominates culture and
conversation. Also, it seemed to me that “Trophy Wife” was
regarded a viable career option thereabouts. Seriously.
Aspiring trophy wives advertise in the papers.
(“Former actress/model seeking relationship with successful
older man. Would look good on your arm. Children from
previous marriage no problem.” That’s an actual ad, mind
you--no poetic license taken.) An article written shortly
after the death of Nicole Simpson, OJ's second wife,
observed that she was honored in her high school year book
as "Most Likely to Marry Someone Rich and Famous." I don't
know whether this is factual, but it gets the cultural tone
right if not the specific detail. Against this backdrop,
once I started thinking about Lilith's story it was probably
inevitable that I would see Eve, Adam's second wife, as the
prototypical trophy wife. Putting these elements together, I
cast Lilith as a divorce attorney working in LA. She's fully
immersed in the TV culture: she appears on a reality show,
she reads Oprah-recommended books, and when the three angels
who act as her celestial parole officers pay a visit, they
shanghai the forms of three guys from a sitcom rerun. The
“trophy wife” theme is where the twist comes in. It’s one of
the odder things I’ve written, but in the process, I was
struck by the vast and varied storytelling potential in
Lilith myth and lore.
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The alternate creation
anthology didn't happen--there were some problems with the
publisher; I don't recall the particulars--but by then the
idea of Lilith stories had taken hold and had also infected
another of the anthology contributors, author/editor J.
Robert King. Rob and I had swapped and critiqued various
versions of our stories during the writing process. He
observed that we ought to round up a couple of other authors
and put together a collection of Lilith stories. Years
later, he and two other long-time industry pros formed
Popcorn Press, a micro-press devoted to the publication
of offbeat stories and collections of poetry. He sent me a
copy of his novella-length book Suicides Anonymous,
knowing that I'd appreciate the quirky, pitch-black humor.
(It's a very funny book, as well as the first time I've ever
seen anyone pulls off a story of that length in second
person point of view.) We started talking, one thing led to
another, and before you know it Rob's original notion—a
chapbook of three or four Lilith tales—had grown to a trade
paperback anthology. I put a notice in
Ralan.com, and the project took off.
I loved almost
everything about the editing process. First off, people
send you stories to read, and what could be better than
that? In all candor, I wasn't expecting much of a response.
The theme is fairly obscure, for one thing, and Lilith
Unbound is a small press project that pays in copies and
a shared royalty. To my surprise, I received nearly a
hundred stories, and more good tales than I could possibly
include. I wanted to leave out “Trophy Wife”, not only to
make more room but because I felt uneasy about including one
of my own stories in what was becoming a conventional
anthology. But the publishers were fairly adamant about
leaving it in. And it does give a general overview of the
Lilith story and myths, so there it is. The other stories
tend to focus on one of Lilith's aspects: first wife, demon,
goddess, succubus, muse. The writing styles and even the
genres vary widely, and each story has a strong, distinct
mood. I'm very pleased with the result.
But there were
definitely lessons learned along the way. I asked for
revisions on a couple of stories that I should have known
would not work no matter how many times they were revised.
In one story, the writing was solid but the topic
distasteful; the other had an interesting topic but the
writing style was closer to summary than storytelling. I
actually revised two very promising stories myself, one of
which ended up in the anthology, and that is something I
will never, ever do again. If a writer is willing to put in
the time and effort to polish a story, I don't mind working
with him or her; in fact, this is my natural inclination. (I
used to be a teacher, and some habits die hard.) But in any
project I edit in the future, you can be certain that any
changes made will be the author's, that every error of
grammar and spelling and punctuation that is caught during
revision or proofing will be subject to authorial approval
before it ends up in print. I plan to be fairly fanatical on
this issue.
I totally agree with
your fanatical approach to the editing and we employ that
tactic at Morrigan Books (well, at least I know I do).
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3. Who got you
writing and who do you love to read now?
I’ve been writing since
I could hold a crayon without snapping it in two, so it’s
difficult to pinpoint a single influence. I guess you could
say my husband got me writing. Our first son was born when I
was in the middle of a career transition. I’d left teaching
and was working in an office while taking night classes
toward an MBA. I’d planned to do the daycare/career route,
but after Andrew was born I simply couldn’t bear the thought
of handing this wonderful little person over to someone else
for ten to twelve hours a day. My husband pointed out that
since I was always reading, it might make sense to try my
hand at writing for a living. The thought had never occurred
to me before; I’d always loved books, but the only
publishing career I’d ever considered, and then only when I
was quite young, was illustration.
My reading habits are
omnivorous, but I do have some current favorites: Michael
Chabon, Robin McKinley, Ian McEwen, Jim Butcher, and
Charlaine Harris, to name a few. Scott Lynch’s debut, The
Lies of Locke Lamora, is among my favorite recently-read
fantasy books. Research for one project or another takes up
a great deal of my reading time. I read a lot of history,
and these days I've expanded my non-fiction reading to
genetics and microbiology, particularly the work of Lynn
Margulis and Dorian Sagan.
I have to read Lynch's,
not only have I heard so much about it but The Even
has been compared to it too.
4. Your mention of
crayons leads me onto the art aspect of Elaine Cunningham
that I've been reading about on your blog. Is this a new
thing for you or are you re-living a passion/interest?
It’s probably not a
“thing” just yet, but more of a “Hmmm... Is it possible to
cram one more activity into my current schedule?”
Art is an old interest,
one that has been lying dormant for years. I have no
training, but I was one of those kids who were always
drawing, painting, messing with clay, and doing various
crafts. For the most part that was a good thing—it’s
difficult to be bored in school if you can pull out a sketch
book after you finish your work—but there was the occasional
backfire. I grew up in a strict Protestant church, complete
with the summer Vacation Bible School. At one such session,
we made piggy banks out of old bleach bottles, using empty
thread spools for their stubby little legs and pipe cleaners
for curly tails. The result appealed to me, and being an
American, of course my first impulse was to take a good
thing and OVERDO IT. With a few weeks, I had a small herd of
plastic swine residing in my bedroom closet. That was fine,
until a Sabbath School lesson addressed the story of Jesus
casting demons out of a possessed man and into a herd of
swine.
Surely you see where I'm
going with this.
We lived in an old
house, complete with mysterious creaks and groans and old
wooden doors that swelled with the heat and contracted when
the summer was past. Of course, when you're five years old,
the effect of humidity on wood isn't the first explanation
likely to pop into your head when, one cool autumn night,
the latch to your closet suddenly and loudly pops and the
door swings open. No, indeed. I leaped bolt upright,
standing on the bed and shrieking in terror, certain I was
about to do battle with a dozen slavering, demonic Clorox
bottles.
And now I'm writing
fantasy. Who could have guessed?
But I digress. Yes, I'm
thinking about reviving art as a hobby, and maybe eventually
as something that can enhance my website. This summer I
wrote the script for a graphic novel—an adaptation of one of
my Forgotten Realms short stories. This experience taught me
how little I knew about the topic. I've been reading a lot
about the graphic novel—Scott McCloud's books are
wonderful—and this week I picked up an interesting book
entitled Hi-Fi Color for Comics: Digital Techniques for
Professional Results, by Brian & Kristy Miller. I'm
looking forward to exploring it. I'm working on basic
drawing skills, but I'm getting more and more interested in
digital art. Just recently I picked up Adobe Illustrator and
several hefty tomes that promise to help me learn the
software. Here's the thing: I would LOVE to do an online
graphic novel, something that will tie in with one of my
(future) novels. Not sure this will ever come to pass, but
I'm having fun with the learning process.
Ooh, I'm very interested
in this idea of Forgotten Realms as graphic novel...
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5. What do you when
you're not writing/editing/drawing?
I read a lot, of course.
A few years ago, I took up the celtic harp, and I'm slowly
building up a repertoire of celtic and early (medieval and
Renaissance) music. I play a Lyon & Healy folk harp, a model
which has been discontinued and replaced with the similar
Ogden harp. I attend concerts and music festivals, go to
live music pubs. Gardening falls somewhere between hobby and
obsession. Every now and then I make a
fabric sculpture dragon, but so far I haven't kept one;
they all go to various charity auctions. I walk a lot; my
goal for the second half of 2008 is 500 miles. One of my
favorite things to do is travel, but I am not a
kiss-the-Blarney-stone sort of traveler. An ideal trip
involves a great deal of walking and a lot of historical
sites: castles, Roman ruins, the occasional haunted
battlefield. I love the traditional music pubs of Ireland
and the gorgeous public gardens throughout the UK. If not
for the ties of family and friends, I'd move to either
Peebles (Scotland) or Dingle (Ireland) in a heartbeat.
I absolutely adored
Dingle (I actually had a swim with Fungie while I was
there)! Killarney was a bit special too!
I'm very jealous about
the harp too!
6. Seeing as you
mentioned the harp I can move effortlessly onto my favourite
question of the set, that which relates to music and
writing. Do you listen to music while you write or do you
prefer silence? Does music inspire you?
I wish I could listen to
music while I'm writing. I'm trying to develop the ability
to do so. But here's the problem: according to a former
linguistics professor, people who have a great deal of
training in music tend to channel music through the same
neural pathways as language. The result is similar to trying
to carry on two conversations at once. I don't know if this
is consistent with the latest theories of how the brain
works, but it certainly describes my experience. My
undergraduate degree was in music, and I've had,
collectively, about three decades of lessons for voice and
various instruments, and have put in about a bazillion hours
of practice, rehearsal, and performing. When music is
playing, I have a very hard time NOT actively listening.
Also, I find that music seems to take up some of the same
mental real estate as writing, even when I'm not actively
engaged in either activity. Around the Yuletide holidays, I
did a nifty harp arrangement for "Angels We Have Heard On
High," and I found that while I was doing other things, I
was also working out harmonic variations in the back of my
mind--pretty much the place where I usually run through
dialogue and envision bits of scenes and battle
choreography. Music takes up space in my head. Because it
was once such an important part of my life, it tends to
displace other things.
That said, I've started
trying to find music that can stay in the background while
I'm writing. Music for harp therapy--a type of alternate
palliative (pain-relieving) treatment--is, as one might
assume, very soothing and innocuous. That seems to work just
fine. I've tried moving on to lute music, but whenever I
come across a piece I've played or studied, my primary
attention goes from writing to the "background music." I
have a feeling this is going to be a slow process.
I wonder if I need to
try and write stuff without music now and again and see what
happens...
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7. What do you think
of when you hear the term speculative fiction? I notice you
don't call yourself a writer of speculative fiction.
I don’t find the term
precise enough to be useful; it has too many meanings and
connotations. Robert Heinlein, who's frequently credited
with coining it, later specified that he meant science
fiction, and did not intend to include fantasy in the term.
Today it's used for both. And more. Words evolve, no
arguments there, and I suppose that it’s a reasonably good
catch-all term if you want to refer collectively to science
fiction, fantasy, horror, magic realism, alternate history,
and so on. But words and terms are more than mere
definition; they also carry subtext.
To my ear, “speculative
fiction” sometimes sounds pretentious. Not always, or even
very often, but every now and then it comes across as an
attempt to position one’s work above genre fiction. As in,
“I don’t write mythology-influenced, Tolkien-descended, high
fantasy claptrap. For that matter, I don’t write fantasy at
all. Oh no! My books are Novels about Important
Ideas such as... uh... Good and Evil...” In
other hands, the term is pejorative. Folk who prefer
literary or mainstream or another genre use the term
“speculative fiction” to dismiss the entire spectrum of
fantastic storytelling, in much the same way some people use
“bodice-ripper” to dismiss the entire spectrum of romance
novels from Jane Austin to Elora’s Cave.
Both of these attitudes
piss me off.
But most of all, the
term “speculative fiction” strikes me as silly and
redundant. ALL fiction is speculative; all fiction asks
“what if...?” at every step of the way. It speculates.
That’s what fiction does.
So no, I don’t call
myself a “writer of speculative fiction.”
I think your view of
speculative is the nearest to my opinion so far...
8. I have a lot of
writers who read these interviews and I'd be attacked for
years if I didn't ask one of my regular questions. What
advice would you give to writers starting out, what should
they be thinking of?
They should be thinking
about writing. Worrying about selling something they haven't
yet written is a colossal waste of time and energy.
Write every day, even if
it's just a little. And read voraciously.
*nods*
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9. Do you have any
favourite characters or stories?
Most of my favorite
characters are recurring characters. Friendship of any kind
takes time, and I like being able to visit with my favorite
imaginary people again and again. My first favorite was Anne
Shirley, the heroine introduced in L.M. Montgomery's Anne
of Green Gables. As a child, I read those books until
they fell apart. These days I'm particularly fond of Jim
Butcher's Harry Dresden and Charlaine Harris's Sookie
Stackpole. Stephanie Plum, Janet Evanovich's signature
character, is a lot of fun. I also like Eve Dallas, the main
character in J.D. Robb's "In Death" series, which at last
count was up to 25 books. Keeping a character interesting
and fresh for 25 books is, in my opinion, an amazing feat.
10. What's your opinion
of the fantasy scene at the moment, do you think it's
looking good?
Every year I buy Ellen
Datlow's Year's Best Fantasy and Horror anthology and
read it from cover to cover. These books are wonderful; they
do a roundup of short fiction, books, magazines, graphic
novels, movies, and so on. I always come away amazed at the
breadth and diversity in the fantasy genre.
Thank you so much for
agreeing to be grilled by me and of course I wish you all
the best and your current and future projects. |
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