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Volume III, Issue 10 |
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| Genre Chicks: An interview with Elaine Isaak |
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By Alethea Kontis
Everybody's Got to Start Somewhere
Alethea Kontis: Word on the street is we wouldn't want to be your hero. Tell us why?
Elaine Isaak: Among my writing buddies, I have a reputation for torturing my heroes. From the perspective of creating the riveting tension and high stakes that make for good fiction, putting your hero in a bad spot is actually a great beginning. A hero cannot be tested until he's faced his deepest fears and hardest moments. It's only when we push ourselves to the limit that we discover the reserves of strength it takes to triumph. Since my work is so much about the greatness of the human potential, the risks and challenges are that much higher. In the case of Kattanan, the hero of The Singer's Crown, he begins from the ultimate position of weakness for most men, as a castrated singer, then has to both accept what has been done to him, and also strive to transform himself into something so much stronger.
AK: Have you always wanted to write fantasy? Will you be limiting yourself to fantasy in the future or branching out to other genres?
EI: When I was growing up, my family had the tradition of reading a book aloud together after Sunday dinner. My parents were both fantasy fans, and some of the books we read included The Wolves of Willoughby Chase and The Hobbit. The first time I had the chance to read, rather than just listen, it was a chapter from The Lord of the Rings. I recall stumbling over strange names and places, but I was hooked. Fantasy opened up a realm of the imagination where the spirit could truly soar, or plummet, and the individual, the character, confronted hard choices and somehow won through in the end. For me, it's a genre of empowerment--the sense that I could be the hidden princess, the brilliant wizard, the one destined to save the world.
There are stories that can't be told in a strictly realistic setting, and others that must be. So I've also written a contemporary romance, set against the backdrop of the fisheries industry collapse in Gloucester, MA, and I have a few more ideas along that line--stories that test their heroes in more familiar ways and places.
AK: Will there be more books after The Singer's Crown?
EI: The sequel, entitled The Eunuch's Heir, is in my editor's hands right now. The series takes the form of a generational saga, with the new book featuring the children of the previous heroes, and the solutions in The Singer's Crown make for new problems in the next book. While the stories will build upon each other, each volume is self-contained--aside from a bit of railing against the parents who should have known better, and the sins that are visited, even inadvertently, upon their sons and daughters. The working title for Book 3 is The Bastard Queen.
I also have a different series, very dark fantasy, based on medieval medicine in pre-plague England. It developed from the research I was doing for the sequel. After all these years, I'm still getting in trouble for reading too much. . .
AK: When writing doesn't consume your life, what else do you do with your time?
EI: I own my own business, Curious Characters, designing original soft sculpture as well as desktop humorous or inspirational sculptures. So I divide my time between studio and writing desk--and somehow manage to find time to be a mom to my 4-year-old! She and I spent yesterday dancing in the paper storm from unwrapping the first case of books with my name on them (though she couldn't understand why I didn't want her to toss the books around as well).
AK: How have libraries influenced you and/or your work?
EI: I worship my local librarians, though they may not know it! I grew up in and around libraries, using the children's room as a refuge, even after I had outgrown the squishy red and yellow chairs. My first grade teacher won my undying appreciation (and an acknowledgement in the book) by allowing me to stay inside and read during recess instead of playing rough-and-tumble with the other kids. We pretty much devoured books as a family, though it's hard to find time to read these days.
But the library hasn't seen the last of me! Irene, at my town library, has to put up with all sorts of strange inter-library loan requests, and has even found a book for me in a neighboring state. It was a title about how to win a child custody battle. When she handed it over, I had to assure her that it was strictly theoretical research. I think they have as much fun with some of the research as I do. I once called up to ask if they could help me figure out what date Easter fell on in the year 1620. I could spend hours wading through on-line baloney--or just contact the experts at the reference desk. And they came through with flying colors. Now I just need to sit down and write the story.
AK: What can we expect from you next?
EI: I'm working on my first real "Big Fat Fantasy"--you know, the kind of things you can squash bugs with. We like to think of them as Epic Fantasy. It's the clash between huge, intelligent, quasi-Buddhist lizards and deer-herding clans of humans. Reindeer, reincarnation, and really big reptiles. Coming someday to a bookshelf near you!
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