Category: Blog

Drammar asks:

You’ve described what it’s like to write as part of a team — how either you or Steve will be the “driver” for the book, and that the driver has a tie-breaking vote concerning the book, and that you role scenes with one another, etc.

What I’m curious about is what happens when you (specifically you, Sharon) are working on a single author title. Does Steve act as a sounding board, do you discuss plot points with him, or are the only voices in your head the ones of the current characters?

Well…the easy answer is that, in my experience, if you have two (or more) writers living in close proximity, each of them is going to have a finger in whatever pie happens to be baking at the time.  Even lacking Proximate Writers, it’s not at all unusual for writers to ask other writers for aid — in looking over an awkward scene, or reading a draft to see if it makes sense, or to bounce ideas off of.  More on this in a moment.

Now, with the Carousel books and stories, I Very Much Wanted to write about Old Orchard Beach, a resort town in Maine of which I am quite foolishly fond.  I also wanted to write about Googin(s) Rock, which exists inside the borders of the town and is Enormously Spooky-Looking and, so, well, magical, that even the sea runs strange around it.

Steve, however, was Very Much Less Interested in writing a story about a magical rock, nor was he Anywhere Near as entranced as I was with the puzzle of fitting a fantasy story into a “real” town; the technical challenge, in essence, of crafting a story that worked on both the mundane level and on the magical level.

(Occasionally, I get Strange Fascinations; I offer as Exhibit A Rool Tiazan and his Good Lady.  Steve has learned to just stand aside and wait.)

So, anyway; it was abundantly clear that, if I wanted to write a book about Archers Beach, I was going to have to do it myself.  I had by this time already written Barnburner and Gunshy — mysteries based in the fictional Central Maine town of Wimsy, during those ten years when we weren’t able to sell any of our writing to anybody, and I sat down to write about Archers Beach knowing, at least, that I could write a novel “by myself.”

(It is a curiosity that the books I’ve written “by myself” have all been told in first person.  Especially considering how much I like to hop heads.  But the first voice I heard when I opened up a new file, intending to sketch out the story, was Kate’s, and we never looked back.)

I pitched the concept to Madame the Agent, who. . .shared Steve’s enthusiasm for the project, but I wrote it anyway, because, by that time, I had to.

For me, writing a book involves a lot of wandering around the house and Staring at Nothing.  Steve is used to this behavior, so — no change in the household routine, there.

What was a little different was that, at the time Carousel Tides was written — in 2006 — matters with Meisha Merlin were starting to come to a head.  We hadn’t been paid for the delivery of Crystal Soldier or Crystal Dragon, or seen the upfront money for the book under contract — Web of the Trident.  Our agent had counseled us not to turn in that book until the money had gotten caught up.  Steve was valiantly trying to write Web so that it would be ready for delivery when the checks came in.

I started to write Carousel Tides — that’s Steve’s title, by the way– thinking maybe having another, different, book on offer might be a Good Thing, and also — had to, above.

In addition to wandering around the house, staring at nothing, I bounced ideas off of Steve, and when the first draft of the book was done, I asked writer friends to read and critique it for me.  After that, I went into revisions, and, sometime after that, I sent the completed manuscript to Madame the Agent, who sent it around all during 2007 and 2008 to unanimous rejection, until it finally came to rest at Baen, in 2009, and was published in 2010.

When it came to writing Carousel Sun and Carousel Seas, Steve continued to act as a sounding board and first reader.  He also took up the slack with washing dishes, doing laundry, cooking, and all the rest of the household tasks that are handed off to the non-rolling partner when the other is on a Writing Roll.

How’s that for a Long, Rambling Answer.

Thanks for asking!

Barbara asks:

Do you think you’ll be in the Baltimore area for your tour? or is PA the closest you’ll get?

The information for the upcoming tour in support of Trade Secret is here.

The tour was arranged by the publicist for Simon & Schuster/Baen, and the broad outline has been in place for several months now.  We will, as noted, dip briefly into Philly, attend PhilCon in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, and then head back home to Maine.

Thank you for your question.

Andrea asks:

I tend to discover new fandoms via fan fiction that has been written for them, so I wish there was more Liaden fan fiction so more people like me could discover this wonderful universe, but I know that that is only one simple reader’s perspective and am honestly/really curious about how you feel about fan fiction in general and for your own universes in particular. Is it strange/uncomfortable to have other people interpret one’s own characters, or …? Thanks!!!

I’m obliged to you for the information that there is so little Liaden fanfic out there, though, frankly, I wish there were none.  I don’t want “other people interpreting” our characters. Interpreting our characters is what Steve and I do; it’s our job.  Nobody else is going to get it right.

This may sound rude and elitist, but honestly, it’s not easy for us to get it right sometimes, and we’ve been living with these characters. . .for a very long time.  I created the prototypes for Val Con and Miri when I was 12 — so that’s almost 50 years together at this point, and there are still misunderstandings.

So, my position with regard to fanfic of our work?  We built our universes, and our characters; they are our intellectual property; and they are not toys lying about some virtual sandbox for other kids to pick up and modify at their whim.  Steve and I do not sanction fanfic written in our universes; any such work that exists, exists without our permission, and certainly without our support.

I know that some of my colleagues think that having their stuff fanficed is swell, and actively encourage derivative work.  So my advice, for people with a yen to write fanfic, is to work in the universes of those authors who permit and encourage it — and to respect the wishes of those of us who do not.

Thank you for your question.

Stephanie asked this question:

Preface: I’m very fond of Theo. Her chapters were published while I was pregnant with my two youngest children. I ticked of weeks of pregnancy with happy exclamations of “the new chapter is here.”

My question: Her books seem harder for you to write. That’s just my impression from reading your blog. I wondered if you knew why and or if that impression is accurate.

Now that’s an interesting observation.

In fact, the first two Theo books — Fledgling and Saltation were a lot of fun to write.  The live-without-a-net thing was exhilarating of itself, taking the writing to the level of Performance Art.  Also, starting a new series is always fun because you’re shooting from the hip, you have no backstory to constrain you (well, we had Daav’s backstory, but Jen Sar Kiladi’s  accomplishments were not known to Clan Korval — he could have been anyone; done anything.  We-the-authors had known Approximately Forever that he had a daughter during his time away from the Clan, and we had some. . .Ideas about what he might’ve been doing (I found an early piece, in fact, in that file of typed and 9-pinned early scenes that tells of his leave-taking from his mistress — who was. . .a very different person from Kamele Waitley), but really, mostly, as far as Theo and Kamele — and therefore their readers — were concerned, Jen Sar was precisely who and what he said he was.

In any case, the first two Theo books were lots of fun.

Where things began to get. . .let’s say sticky, rather than not-fun, since we know from experience that anything sufficiently not-fun won’t get written — is when Theo catches up to, and needs to be rectified with, the Clan Korval backstory.

Small Confession:  I’ve always found Theo more difficult to write than Steve has found.  Theo is a Lot More Earnest than I can easily support, and she had. . .less access to irony and sarcasm.  Miri, Val Con — Daav himself, are much easier characters for me to write.

The stickiness referred to above was increased somewhat by Baen’s viewpoint as  a publisher.  If you’ll recall, Fledgling was the first Liaden book that Baen had acquired (I’m not talking about the Webscriptions electronic reprints, which were not seen as “belonging” to Baen).  Therefore, from the publisher’s viewpoint, All Books Going Forward — were Theo books.

We tried that, with Ghost Ship and Dragon Ship, each progressively harder to write.  When it came time to pitch the next “Liaden” book — aka the next Theo book — we realized that the problem was this. . .

In-universe, there’s a lot of stuff going on for Clan Korval, and Theo’s Stuff is only part of a much, much bigger picture.  We had been trying to fit all the Other Stuff around Theo’s Stuff — and it was cramping our style.

This was the realization from which the Five Book Dash was born.  Five books, all pointing in the same direction, each giving scope to a mover and shaker in the Liaden Universe®, only one of which is (projected to be) Theo-centric.

This solution made the back-brain happy, which will, in turn, make happy writers, and books that are less sticky to write.

Thanks for asking!