Let's open this baby up. All discussion/questions on Guardian of the Dead welcome - some may end up in the FAQ.
Obviously, spoilers everywhere.
Feel free to talk to other people in the thread; usual rules of conduct apply re: not being a jerk.
ETA: The excellent Alvina Ling offers to answer questions from an editor's point of view, also!
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Comments
Coincidence!
But I like the correlation.
When I started, I had no idea what I was doing - I just went with what came naturally in the unwinding of the story, in order to get the plot out. But of course the plot changed a lot, and different backstories needed to be inserted and shuffled around. Basically, a lot of re-writing and swearing at myself and eventually hammering it into something I and my editors were happy with.
Pacing is kind of my bugbear, next to action, so I tend to work on it as hard as I can!
That was actually the hardest thing to do in terms of doing awful things to people in the book, because it's certain to happen. Mist-dwelling magical serial killers are not actually something people need to worry about. But by virtue of its position over a tectonic shift zone, New Zealand will, at some point, be hit by a major earthquake, and it's going to be really, really bad.
Also, I like that you didn't redeem Blake because his kind of pushy/sexually aggressive behavior seems to get rewarded a lot or considered 'true love' (he just can't keep his hands off her) in romance &YA romance books.
In the sequel(s), do you think you'd continue with Ellie as the main character or switch to a different POV?
I like Ellie bunches, but I am not sure she could sustain PoV for a direct sequel; a lot of her personal journey has already happened, and it's hard to go from "30 000 dead people!" to "another crisis! With also some high stakes but not that high!" with the same character. The sequel I am noodling on at present features Ellie, but is told from the PoV of someone who's not in Guardian.
And no - I don't soundtrack my work per se.
*beatific smile*
I was sitting in an enchanted glade and finishing another of my fine embroidered tapestries, which were the wonder of the whole land, when my mother rode up on her charger.
"Karen," she said, "Clumsy, flabby fruit of my loins. I have a quest for you."
"Mum, I just got some new yarn!" I said. "They make this purple with shells-"
"PIFFLE," she said, and tossed a worn dagger at me. "Take this, and go and kill the ogre under yonder hill."
"Is this an enchanted sword?" I asked.
"Hardly. I gave the enchanted sword to your sister, who will put it to good use. But I'm tired of your bringing shame upon our family. Kill the ogre, and bring back the treasure it hordes, and I'll let you go back to your embroidery and tea parties."
"Oh, okay," I said, and rolled up the tapestry just in case it would be useful.
I gathered a band of trusty companions of various backgrounds and skills, escaped the clutches of a dark sorcerer who wanted to seduce me, solved a riddle posed by a mythological beast, and found the ogre.
"I'm supposed to kill you, but I'd rather not," I said. "Mind if I swap you this tapestry for your treasure instead?"
"What wonderful needlework!" she exclaimed. "What subtle use of colour gradients! Certainly."
The treasure was a small mechanical bird that told enchanting stories, one of which was the plot of Guardian of the Dead.
And that's how I come up with my ideas.
Edited at 2010-04-12 08:19 am (UTC)
In the reality in which there is definitely going to be a sequel *nods nods* my question is:
will there be any consequences for Ellie using the mask on her teacher or her neighbor? I know the shock of the earthquake will probably be a huge distraction (and her neighbor's son, omg, I hope he walks again :( )--but it seems like memory charms in this universe aren't really infallible, and so I can't help but wonder.......
But yes and no. Neither Hinemoana nor Mrs. Chapell have latent power as Ellie does, and the mask is quite a bit stronger at the mind-whammy than Mark's bracelet, which he's been successfully using for years*, so they themselves will not be able to shake off the charm and apply consequences.
But there are consequences to using the mask, both magical and ethical, that in the cross-our-fingers sequel Ellie will have to deal with.
* Oh, Mark, your ethics are as tangled as a tangled thing.
Not peeking at comments. No, no, no!
Just dashing in to squeal with delight at the fact that my copy of hte book finally shipped! It should be here soon. Fi-freakin'-ally!
Whoo-hoo!
*dashes blindly back out, barely missing the the bookcase on the way*
But seriously...umm, tough question. I like to have a conversation, whether on the phone or email, about how the editorial process will work, and ask the author how they like to work, or else tell them how *I* generally work and ask them if that works for them. But really, it's a "see how it goes" type of thing and we make adjustments as things go on. Overall, I try to be as available and open as possible. And I like to be friends (or at least, friendLY) with the authors I work with, because that makes the whole process more fun.
Also, I do try to make it clear throughout the whole process that the book is and always will be the author's book, and any comments or suggestions I make are just that--suggestions only. I don't want the author to make any changes that he or she does not agree with. After all, it's not MY name that goes on the cover!
SQUEEING COMMENCE! Well, um, you're giantly awesome. It was payday today so I went along to Wellington Borders to see if they had it, and lo and behold, THEY DID! And I read it ALL DAY LONG at work, and finished it in one big bite. It was fantastic. Seriously. I think one of my favourite lines was "So, you're a wizard, you unbelievable dick?", and in part I adored that line because it is a thing I could potentially have heard around me, and having an amazing novel set in my land, in my Kiwi voice, with legends about the part of the world in which I've grown up so that I can recognise what's going on (see: pale red-headed woman from the mist who can't abide the smell of cooked food - ominosity level hits 11) was awesome. I am now pushing it on all of my friends, and trying to convince them to buy copies so that the potential sequel will become non-potential and turn into a Real Book Too.
Now it is question time. The "being able to see the legends" such as the man in the sky, the woman in the moon (and the chariot in the moon Ellie can see after hearing the myth) reminds me of the ideas in Pratchett's Pyramids, where (I think, from memory, due to quantum and a bad idea involving a giant pyramid) the faux-Egyptian country Djelibeybi was wrenched into a myth-version. There, in the myth-version all the myths suddenly appeared, so the characters suddenly became able to see things like the giant woman in the sky who wore all the stars, and because of all the different myths about the sun, there was a big scuffle between the different sun-gods as to who would push the sun across the sky. It was sort of a look at all the different Ancient Egyptian myths, and how all of them could be true at once. Obviously, it's a very different context from yours, but have you read it or heard of it?
Also, GEEZE, NO HAPPY ROMANTIC ENDINGS ALL NEATLY TIED UP *sulk* Will Mark ever get to be human, I ask hopefully? I suspect the answer to this is "Maybe, because SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER" but I have to ask nevertheless.
He mentions in the book that taniwha can learn to take on human form and that Reka asked his grandfather to teach him how to do that (because she wants grandchildren. Heh). As for becoming fully human, I don't think that's possible, but then I prefer that he isn't. :)
Or, I have no idea. I have a hefty embarrassment squick myself, so possibly I unconsciously avoid triggering it?
One last question, not exactly related to Guardian: what do you think of fanfiction? (I am aware you probably can't read Guardian fanfiction, due to legal issues, but what do you think of it in general?)
I have a lot of squee! I think the main thing that hit me about the book is that - okay. I have many favourite young adult/childrens NZ authors. And they are wonderful and they capture Kiwi people and places and everything and it's awesome.
BUT. You are the first one I've read who's about my age, and I think it shows. There's just a little something extra in the characters and settings that I connected with, that this wasn't so much a Book as a story about people I could nearly know. My biggest squee is Ellie finishing her perfectly articulate classroom arguement with "So, um, yeah." YEAH.
Question: Magda. Will we see more of her in any potential future books?
I just thought you might like to know that I wrote a review of Guardian of the Dead for AVENues, the asexuality.org newsletter. You can download the free newsletter here, if you're interested:
http://docs.google.com/uc?export=downlo
I love the book, in case you couldn't tell from the review. ;) And thank you for including an asexual character!
Sorry I didn't include a link to this thread. I only just found your LJ.
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Если нет - удалите это сообщение.
Если да - я скоро вернусь.
The interesting name of a site - karenhealey.livejournal.com, interesting this here is very good.
I spent 2 hours searching in the network, until find your forum!
an arab ... learn the languge :d
thanks