Volume 3, Issue 1 – February, 2000
Jody Lynn Nye: Don’t Forget Your Fantasy, Dear
Author of 20 novels, four role-playing game-books and numerous short stories, Jody Lynn Nye makes the planet-hopping journeys of an outer space doctor and her medical menagerie read as easily as a sojourn in an ethereal world where everything is an illusion.
Recently, this talented Illinois native took time from her busy schedule to talk to Crescent Blues about living with another writer (her spouse, Bill Fawcett), working with science fiction/fantasy grande dame Anne McCaffrey, and the ins and outs of surviving SF/Fantasy conventions.
Crescent Blues: One of the main themes of School of Light is the effect of cliques on not only the students but on the college as a whole. What inspired you to address this particular issue?
Jody Lynn Nye: School of Light really started from a kernel of an artists’ atelier, but I decided it would be more fun to expand it into a full-throttle learning institution. That gave me more scope to play with characters who would be unlikely to turn up in a small, dedicated learning environment, such as the In Crowd. I like writing stories based in schools and colleges.
I love to explore the process of learning. People are there for a common purpose — education instead of business — and they aren’t stuck at a desk or dedicated to a single task that would prevent them interacting.
How did the cliques in your college affect you? What do you think it is about schools — primary schools, high schools, colleges — that provides such fertile grounds for cliques?
Not at all in college or high school, but in primary school I was picked on by the “cool girls,” who were larger, meaner, and less moral than I was. I was a new kid in the neighborhood, and the social groups had been established before kindergarten. It’s when a child moves with his/her group onto the next, normal transition (such as up to junior high school) that a stranger begins to fit in.
School of Light, features Juele, a young woman learning to master illusions. You mentioned that, physically, the school in your book is loosely based on the one of the colleges in Cambridge, England. Have you used “real” locations as a starting point for locales in other works?
It was Oxford, not Cambridge. I was able to stay for two weeks at Pembroke College and use it as my base while I explored the University, including the Bodleian Library (!), lectures, performances, and places the students frequent. I am very grateful to them for the experience. I’ve visited dozens of colleges in the US, and there is nothing equivalent to the “Oxbridge” style of education.
I do like to “walk the walk” when I can. I often find that when I am in the place I’m writing about, or somewhere similar in feel, it changes the perception I have of the action going on, and always for the better.
Cities all have their own feel, and small places have details that you can miss. And the real thing is often more fun than anything I could make up. My contemporary fantasies are set almost entirely in Chicago and the midwestern U.S. (except for the one that went all over the U. K. and Ireland — and therein lies a tale or two!). If the sites I mention aren’t real, they’re usually a combination of several that are.
Waking in Dreamland and School of Light deal with a land where almost everything is an illusion, or a dream within a dream. Has one of your dreams ever provided you with the inspiration for a book?
Not a whole book but scenes and sometimes characters or lines of dialogue. Once, long ago, I dreamed of a comedy routine with jokes that were still funny in the morning. Unconscious minds are much more clever than the conscious is aware of. Sounds odd, I know.
Meisha Merlin is issuing Mythology 101, Mythology Abroad and Higher Mythology as an omnibus called Applied Mythology. And in August 2001, Advanced Mythology, the fourth book in the series will be released. What new adventures face Keith, Holl and their friends?
Ah, well, you know that Keith has been trying for years to get all the magical folk to get together in one confabulation. Maybe this is the year that it happens. He’s certainly going to try.
Speaking of the Mythology series, what was the inspiration for Keith finding a village of elves in a college library?
This is one of those true but strange occurrences where the location came first before either character or plot, and it is based upon a real place. When I was in college, there was a gorgeous library on campus, almost exactly as I describe Midwestern’s: marble entry way, nine levels of stacks (two-thirds-high floors stuffed with bookshelves and study carrels), quietly elegant reading rooms.
The stacks (like the rest of the library, I suppose) were heated by steam ducts. The heating system made odd noises. I would often be there until it closed. Late at night there would be few people there besides the librarians and me, yet I could almost swear I heard voices deep, down below. It wasn’t until many years later that I thought, “What if someone was living down there?”
You co-authored several books with Anne McCaffrey — Crisis on Doona, Treaty at Doona, Sassinak, Planet Pirates, Death of Sleep, Generation Warriors, The Ship Who Won and The Dragonlover’s Guide to Pern. How did your collaboration with one of the grand ladies of science fiction begin?
My connection with her came through my husband, then fiancé, Bill Fawcett. In the late Seventies, early Eighties, he was one of the owners of Mayfair Games. They negotiated a license from Anne for The Dragonriders of Pern role-play board game. Anne’s son Todd came on board during his summer break from college to intern with [Mayfair Games]. [Bill and Todd] became good friends.
When in 1985 Bill came up with a concept for “follow-your-path” adventure books featuring Pern (and a dozen other fantasy or science fiction worlds), I stood up and waved my hand, yelling, “Me! Me!” I had already written modules for Mayfair, so he knew I knew gaming structure, and he knew I could write engaging fiction. Then, I had to present my plots to Anne. Nerve-wrack City.
We went to Norwescon to meet her. I’ve told this story before in other places, but it manages to prove an exception to (either Noel Coward’s or George Bernard Shaw’s) statement that God writes lousy theater. Bill set me in the queue to check in to the hotel while he went looking for Anne. At that time I didn’t have the least idea what she looked like. The hotel wasn’t very crowded yet, and I hadn’t seen anyone else I knew. Two or three people ahead of me in the line was a woman about my height wearing a purple pantsuit and a purple slouch hat. When she turned her head, I could see that her shoulder-length white hair was streaked on one side with red, purple and blue. I didn’t know who she was, but I knew she must have something to do with the convention.
At that moment, Bill came out of the side hall. He spread his arms wide and started walking over with a smile on his face. (I thought he was coming to me.) He shouted, “Anne!”
The lady in purple turned, spread out her arms and announced, “Bill!”
I just gulped quietly to myself.
I have to say that she could not have been nicer, nor more patient with a patently nervous newbie writer who had the temerity to say, “I would like to mess in your most precious world, please.” But I had done my homework, and I am a deep-rooted fan, anyway, so she was able to approve the story as I set it forth. I adored doing Dragonharper, since Master Robinton has always been my favorite. It’s a measure of Anne’s faith in me that she let me mess with such a pivotal character. I loved writing Dragonfire, too, because Mirrim was such a challenge. She’s that rarity, a young female who goes into combat alongside the men, but she has her emotional troubles as well.
In fact, I did all the writing on the Dragonlover’s Guide. The idea was NOT to have Anne have to do any new work on it. We (Bill, Todd, Cameron Hamilton and I) interviewed her for ten days at her home in Ireland. I went home with the tapes and my research, and put it together.
How difficult was collaborating on a novel versus writing solo?
Much more difficult. You don’t have to do as much advance outlining when you are working alone (well, I don’t, anyhow). Added to the tasks of plotting an intriguing story, furnishing it with characters and setting it in an appropriate location, you have to decide who in the collaboration is responsible for what: what sections, what characters, what chapters — and where and how you can cross the lines in between them. What to do if one person drops the ball, for whatever reason. (Stuff happens, she said with a shrug.) What to do when the plot falls apart. And, in the end, someone has to be responsible for running an eye over the whole thing to make certain it reads smoothly and has internal continuity.
Collaboration is a partnership, with both of you on equal footing (usually). You have to decide how you break the tie when you disagree fundamentally on an issue. With Anne there was never a question of who would have the final say. I never had a problem with that; I welcomed it. But other collaborations that I know of have broken up friendships and nearly one marriage.
I was glad to have a chance to work with someone who has such expertise and such a generous soul. I learned plenty from her. She’s a good teacher as well as a fabulous writer.
While we’re on the topic of collaborating — or rather, of playing in someone else’s pea patch — how did the Crossroads game-books come about? (Dragonharper, Dragonfire [Adventures in Anne McCaffrey’s Pern] and The Encyclopedia of Xanth and Ghost of a Chance [Piers Anthony’s Xanth])
As I mentioned, Bill Fawcett (then fiancé, now husband) is a book packager and designer. He comes up with innovative series or one-off books that he proposes to publishers. If they accept it, he finds writers, and — if he needs them — artists, whom he hires to produce the book(s). Then, he edits [the book or books], puts the pieces together, and turns the final manuscript, ready to go to production, over to the publisher.
Coming from a background in game design, Bill thought it was a natural to attract young readers to science fiction and fantasy through a series of game-books that used well-known “universes,” in hopes of luring the ones who became interested into the larger world of the fiction at their source.
In 1985, TOR Books bought Crossroads (and Ace Books bought its military cousin, Combat Command, where you guided a fighting force instead of an individual adventurer). By the time the dust settled in 1988, there were 14 Crossroads books, of which I had written four (and 11 Combat Commands). There ought to have been more, but Nintendo debuted the same year. We lost the preponderance of readers to Game Boy.
Finding writers for the game-books was difficult. The pool of writers who understand the mechanics of role-play gaming is small, and of those, the ones who could reasonably emulate the style of the world they were borrowing smaller yet. The ones who were brought on board did excellent work. I thought a particular standout was Shines the Name by Mark Acres, based on Heinlein’s Starship Troopers. The writers loved the opportunity — getting to write fanfic in a world they admired and getting paid for it.
I’m one of those people from whom puns just erupt, so the Xanth license was perfect for me, and Xanth is perfect for chosen-path adventures. The best stories are personal quests where the protagonist has a set goal. Peppering the plot with putrid puns was a pleasure.
[Staff groans] Do you have any plans to write any more game-books — perhaps in one of your own universes — like the Mythology series?
Not unless the market turns back toward game-books. Children are more sophisticated now. I’d have to put Keith and the Folk into a computer game. (Hmm…)
Fans of the Taylor’s Ark series want to know — will there be another book featuring Dr. Shona and her animal helpers?
I certainly hope so!
Was Dr. Shona based on someone real?
No. She was a character that I made up. I like her. She’s very real, marvelously human, funny, sad, vulnerable, kind. Oddly, at the World Science Fiction Convention in Winnipeg, I met a lady who looked exactly like the person I had pictured, so much so that I kept looking down the table thinking, “I know her. But from where?”
The Ship Errant continues the adventures of the brainship Carialle and her brawn, Keff. What was it like writing in one of Anne McCaffrey’s worlds without the original creator by your side?
She was always the good conscience on my shoulder. That story was astonishingly easy to produce. I let the plot arise from the complications that we had left unresolved in The Ship Who Won — Carialle’s problem, her ongoing war with the Inspector-General, and the Cridi’s difficult homecoming — and then let rip. The story was lots of fun to write. Anne didn’t want to see it until it was finished, so I’m glad she liked it.
A lot of your books take place in universities, or deal with the ins and outs of higher education — School of Light, Mythology 101, Mythology Abroad, Higher Mythology. Is there a reason for your fondness for an academic background for your protagonists?
In addition to the reasons I mentioned before, the educational environment is one that everyone has in common.
In your Mythology series both your main protagonists are male (Keith and Holl). Again in Waking in Dreamland, your main protagonist (Roan) is of the opposite sex. What kind of research do you do to create a believable male point of view? Is it harder or easier to write from a male perspective?
I find men as easy to write about as women. There are characters who “click” immediately, and ones who don’t. My main character’s perspective has to be neutral for all readers to identify with her/him, but the use of the gender pronoun does change the reader’s unconscious perspective (ever read that Ursula K. LeGuin story?), so it is a choice that I make deliberately. I have in the past changed a character’s gender to better suit a story I was writing.
You’ve written short stories for anthologies (Mob Magic, Chicks in Chainmail, Did You Say Chicks?) and even edited an anthology of your own (Don’t Forget Your Spacesuit, Dear). Do you find short stories are harder or easier to write than a novel?
I find them faster to write. I love writing short stories, particularly for anthologies. I welcome the “I dare you to write one that can fit in” character of an anthology. Short stories are more of a challenge. You can babble on for weeks in a novel, but must go straight to the point in a story. It’s good training for a writer.
You’re married to an author. What are the advantages and drawbacks of sharing house and computer space with a fellow writer?
Obvious advantages: automatic reader and critic. Supporter through edits and bad reviews, fellow celebrator during releases and good reviews. Personal gadfly, hand-holder, bringer of treats and comfort during stressful times. I massage [Bill’s] neck and back and make him blueberry muffins when he’s stressed out. He brings me cups of tea and bouquets of flowers.
Drawbacks: when [Bill’s] not on a deadline, he often forgets that I am. Much of his business is conducted over the phone. Loudly. All over the house. I can’t work with distractions. I don’t have a radio in my office. My computer doesn’t even have speakers. He will appear in my office to tell me something that the snarl in my voice should have informed him was trivial.
And by the way, I do have my own office, and so does Bill. They are as far apart physically as possible. We have our own computers, of equal quality.
You’ve written a fair mix of science fiction and fantasy. Do you prefer one genre over the other?
I like them both. It’s easier to write fantasy. I should be writing more SF. I will be in future.
Have you ever considered writing in another genre — like mystery or romance?
Mysteries. I’ve had plots of several running around in my head for years. One series is historical with fantasy elements. One is contemporary with a hint of magic. One is straight contemporary. All of them have elements of humor.
Many established authors are turning to electronic publishing on the Web to reissue out of print books or to publish new works. What are your opinions regarding the new kid on the publishing block?
Mostly positive, though I’m concerned about the security issues.
There’s a perception that everything on the Web should be free. I don’t disagree with that in theory. In fact, I get frustrated too when a source wants me to pay, usually ‘way too much, for something. (Three dollars? For one crummy little article!?!) But the problem is the same: how can I get paid for what I write for sale (I differentiate between that and something I might post for fun) while at the same time allowing the web to run free — until the government figures out how to regulate (and tax) it. I don’t want anyone rummaging through my hard drive or running amok with my credit card numbers, or plaguing me with spam, but I’m fascinated by the good things going on.
It’s a rare opportunity to see just what kind of community we create on-line. In fact, I think it’s exactly like a flesh-and-blood-and-infrastructure community. There are places you shouldn’t go, people and sources you shouldn’t trust, wide open spaces of experimentation, tons of info, more entertainment than you have time in your life to enjoy, and people from all over the world talking to one another and getting to know one another. There are predators. We just don’t know what the dark alleys look like yet. There are thousands of friends you haven’t met yet.
As for e-publishing, small entrepreneurs are kicking the bugs out of it at this moment. Alexandria is vending classic o/p SF/fantasy short stories over the ‘Net for very reasonable rates along with their custom-fit fiction service (“If you loved that, you’ll love this, too.”).Dreams Unlimited has published several books available only on CD you can order on-line. Speculation Press sells real paper books over the net. That’s three new kinds of opportunity that did not exist before.
Have you ever considered using electronic publishing?
Already in it. Dreams Unlimited has published an anthology on CD-ROM called Star Dates: Infinite Celebrations , featuring a story by me.
Conventions seem to have become a necessary part of an author’s life nowadays. What do you like and dislike most about attending conventions?
Conventions are a nice break for someone who works alone as I do. I like getting out among similarly minded people. I enjoy the bazaar atmosphere of the dealers’ room, the range of talents in the art shows and masquerades, the fun of panels. As someone who came up out of role-play gaming I think Live Action Role Playing Games (LARPs) are good, though I don’t play them. Great eclectic mix of program participants, and the chance to have some deep discussions about interesting things.
What I don’t like is the office politics, people who see the only way to make themselves feel important is by stepping on the heads of others. I don’t like to go to a convention as a program participant and be ignored by the con committee. If I’m there, part of the program and part of the ambience, I want to feel appreciated. If I find myself thinking I would really have been better off staying home writing, that’s a hint that something is going wrong.
I don’t like having nothing to do, or, contrary-wise, so many program obligations that I never get a break. I never go just to see the city the convention’s being held in, because I never get to.
If you could change anything about the conventions you attend, what would it be?
Have more people come to see me. [Grins.] In a way that’s true. I wish that conventions would be more scrupulous about publicizing the names of professionals who are attending. One of the reasons writers come is to meet their readers, and vice versa. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had someone tell me, “Oh, I wish I had known you were coming!” It’s not supposed to be a secret.
You feature cats quite prominently on your home page. Have you ever thought of writing a book with a cat as a protagonist?
Not yet. It’s just about inevitable, isn’t it? [Grins again.]
Is there anything else you’d like to talk about? This is the time to pull up your soapbox and let Crescent Blues readers know what your pet peeves and projects are.
I have got so many projects that I’m working on. I want to keep going on with humor, because I love it, and because readers have told me that they enjoy reading my work because it cheers them up. That makes me happy, because that’s what I want to do.
I’d like to ask your readers that if they like a writer’s work, please let him or her know. If you have something you like, review their works on-line, especially Amazon.com and Barnesandnoble.com. (No flamers, please. We have enough to deal with just getting the books into print!) Having someone say in print that they liked your book is extremely satisfying for an author.
Write to authors and tell them what it was you enjoyed about their work. We get precious little feedback, and I can live on a good compliment for weeks. Tell the publisher you want more. (Or, let him know you’re having trouble getting certain books — flat sales aren’t always the mark of a bad book — availability is a bugbear, too!)
Thanks to all the Crescent Blues readers for giving me the chance to speak with you. Keep reading, and keep in touch.
Teri Smith
Raising hell for fifty years from Alaska to the Azores and all points in between, Teri Smith (nee Dohmen) was an Air Force brat who never stopped traveling. She was also a mother, a grandmother (of ten!), a help desk wizard, a financial assistant, acquisitions editor for Samhain Publishing and, most importantly, the Queen Nag of the Known Universe. A multi-published short story writer, her first novel, With Nine You Get Vanyr, written with Jean Marie Ward, was published in 2007. Contrary to common belief, she never stopped living.