Elizabeth Bear, Author of Machine – Interview

Tags

Elizabeth Bear, interview, space opera

Interview with Elizabeth Bear

Today’s guest is Elizabeth Bear, author of Machine which is new this month.  Machine is the follow up Ancestral Night and takes place in the same White Space universe.  I’ll be adding my review to the blog tommorrow.  In the meantime, please welcome Elizabeth Bear!

Riley: Please tell us a little about yourself (something that can’t be found online).

Elizabeth: Well, having been online in one capacity or another since 1989, and having been a fairly prolific blogger for about ten or twelve years, I’m not sure there is much about me that isn’t online. But to give a high-altitude overview, I am a science fiction and fantasy writer who lives in a very old house in a small town in Western Massachusetts with my spouse, Scott Lynch, who is also a science fiction and fantasy writer. We have four cats and a medium-small horse and I am possibly the worst guitarist on the Eastern Seaboard of North America.

Riley: As a futurist, what are your concerns about the future?  What are your hopes?

Elizabeth: My hope is that we manage to continue, no matter how slowly, improving quality of life and personal freedom and fulfillment for human beings, while protecting the existence and wellbeing of other creatures on this planet. That we’re not currently at some kind of apex of human achievement and happiness, despite how fashionable it is to predict the end of the world.

My concerns are probably the same concerns of everybody who has been paying attention: rising tides of fascism; global climate destabilization; megavolcanos… okay, I probably worry more about megavolcanos than most people, but worrying about megavolcanos is kind of my job.

Riley: In reading Ancestral Night, I found themes that apply to our lives today.  The most obvious one to me is individual freedom vs. laws for the good of all.  These days, I feel it is harder and harder for people to reconcile these ideas.  Will we see more of this in Machine, or are there any current events or issues that we will see in the next book?

Elizabeth: Honestly, I think it’s probably not harder to reconcile. I think what’s going on is that people are more aware (speaking very broadly) that individual freedom is in tension with the good of everybody. Because of the massive enfranchisement of marginalized people provided by the internet, we can now hear voices from all over the world, and if we listen, we can learn from a diversity of perspectives rather than simply hearing the most mainstream ones.

When I was a kid, if the establishment said, “This law is good for everybody!” there wasn’t a lot of pressure to contradict that viewpoint unless you really went digging into alternative news sources and niche presses. Now, you can hear directly from people who do not find that a particular law is good for them.

Which does lend itself to the feeling that you can never make everybody happy, and you know what? That’s true. But you can also work out scales of unhappiness, and given how opinion in America has shifted, for example, on same-sex marriage over even my lifetime, it seems that a small majority of even privileged populations can be convinced by evidence and anecdote and personal experience to support social justice for minority populations when they can see the truth of things.

The closer we are to people who are not just like us, the more we care about their wellbeing. It kind of sucks that that’s what it takes to make people care, but we didn’t evolve for this and we have to learn to use our brains in nonintuitive ways to deal with the scope and breadth of modern society.

Ahem, sorry. Anyway…

Entirely accidentally, Machine deals with a life-threatening outbreak aboard a massive hospital in space, and the measures taken to contain it and find a solution. I guess that’s sort of a current event.

Oops.

As for future books… thematically, we’re always writing about the world we live in. Science fiction is about the future, but it isn’t for the future. It’s for right now. My audience is alive and breathing in 2020.

As of this writing, I’m still in negotiations with my publishers about the next book… but I can tell you something that nobody else on the internet knows! If it happens (and it probably will happen!) it will be called The Folded Sky and it will be out in 2022.

Assuming we still have enough of a publishing industry to support quirky gay literary science fiction novels that are unlikely to become #1 New York Times bestsellers, of course!

Riley: I always appreciate a ship with a personality.  If I see that the story has an AI ship, the book is going on my TBR.  In Ancestral Night, you take the AI concept a bit further and give them citizen status, with all the privileges and responsibilities associated with it.   What led to your vision of AIs?

Elizabeth: Citizen status, with a few drawbacks! The AIs in the White Space universe are indentured, after a fashion, because they are created owing society a debt. I’m not going to say that this has anything to do with the fact that it took me twenty-five years to pay off my student loans, but you know, influences happen whether we want them to or not!

I do expect that the implications of that to play out in a future book, if there are future books. (See above.)

I don’t think there’s a specific thing that led to AIs developing the way they did in the White Space books. I’ve written futures without strong artificial intelligence (Undertow) and with artificial intelligence run wild (Carnival and also the Jacob’s Ladder books). I’ve done a bunch of reading on A-life and how artificial intelligence problem solving works and differs from human problem solving. (AIs do the darndest things.)

Riley: What is the furthest you have travelled from Earth?

Elizabeth: I have not, alas, ever left Earth. I haven’t even made it out of either the Northern or Western hemispheres… yet.

Riley: Of the books you have published, do you have a favorite (and if so, why is that your favorite?)

Elizabeth: I wouldn’t say I have a favorite, exactly, but the ones I had the most fun writing are probably the Stratford Man duology and Karen Memory. The Stratford Man because my friend Sarah Monette, aka Katherine Addison, was working on a Ph.D. thesis in Elizabethan and Jacobean theatre while I wrote it and we spent a huge amount of time giggling about Ben Jonson and Christopher Marlowe in email. (This is more entertaining than it sounds.)

Karen Memory because it’s always a delight to write a character who runs towards the sound of (metaphorical or real) gunfire rather than away from it. You never have to work to get them into trouble. And I tend to be a fairly cautious person in my own life, so writing somebody who is like “IN WITH BOTH FEET” is a nice escape!

The book I am currently writing is always my least favorite, because it’s not done yet.

Riley: Who are some of your favorite authors and/or books.

Elizabeth: Oh, we could be here all week.

Recently, I love C.L. Polk, Arkady Martine, Sarah Prineas, Amal El-Mohtar, Adrian Tchaikovsky, and the aforementioned Katherine Addison.

Going a little farther back, Max Gladstone, Nalo Hopkinson, and Charlie Jane Anders (and I guess I have to include that Scott Lynch guy!) have never disappointed me.

Historically, my all-time favorite books dating back to childhood are Watership Down (speaking of works whose thematic content seems very relevant again: it’s all about anti-fascism, but with bunnies) and The Last Unicorn. I’ve read the covers off several copies of each. I’m also a huge fan of Octavia Butler, Roger Zelazny, C.J. Cherryh, and Dick Francis.

This is all just off the top of my head, mind! Ask me tomorrow and get a different list.

Riley: Would you like to share a teaser from Machine?

Elizabeth:

“Does the shipmind still exist?” Tsosie asked. “How about the library?”

“There’s a library,” she said. “And there’s Central.”

“Central?” I asked, deciding not to remind Tsosie that I had been going to do the talking. I was a little distracted: without Sally to keep an eye on my pain levels and help coordinate my exo, I was still doing those tasks myself. Keeping abreast of it wasn’t a problem, but it used up a few cycles. “Who is Central?”

“Central,” Helen said, “isn’t a person.”

“You’ve been here alone?” I was beginning to understand why the whole ship was filled with bot toys. Helen must have been incredibly bored. I hoped she’d at least been programmed to be interested in astronomical data, because that was the only source of intellectual stimulation for parsecs.

“I’m not alone,” she said. “Here are the passengers.”

She pressed a metal palm to a pad beside an irising hatch. A big hatch: this must be one of the promised cargo bays. Sally’s map and my own sense of dead reckoning told me that we’d come up on the side of the spinning wheel. That made sense: cargo bays would serve as valuable radiation shielding, though this one seemed to be oriented away from the wheel’s direction of travel.

She stepped through and gestured us into the airlock with her. We went. Helen cycled the lock. The door in front of us came open. A pale light flooded past her, shimmering on the curve of her hip and thigh.

I peered over Helen’s shoulder. The hold was filled with rank after rank of caskets.

Riley:  What else would you like to share about yourself or about Machine?

Elizabeth: I think the most salient thing about me right now is that I’m currently at work on the final book in the Lotus Kingdoms trilogy, which is titled The Origin of Storms and is a bit late because, you know, global meltdown of everything is somewhat distracting. And the most important thing I can add about Machine is that I hope if you read it, you like it.

About Machine

Meet Doctor Jens.

She hasn’t had a decent cup of coffee in fifteen years. Her workday begins when she jumps out of perfectly good space ships and continues with developing treatments for sick alien species she’s never seen before. She loves her life. Even without the coffee.

But Dr. Jens is about to discover an astonishing mystery: two ships, one ancient and one new, locked in a deadly embrace. The crew is suffering from an unknown ailment and the shipmind is trapped in an inadequate body, much of her memory pared away.

Unfortunately, Dr. Jens can’t resist a mystery and she begins doing some digging. She has no idea that she’s about to discover horrifying and life-changing truths.

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Links

Add Machine to your Goodreads shelf:

Purchase Machine:

 

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About Elizabeth Bear

Elizabeth Bear was born on the same day as Frodo and Bilbo Baggins, but in a different year.

She is the Hugo, Sturgeon, Locus, and Campbell Award winning author of dozens of novels; over a hundred short stories; and a number of essays, nonfiction, and opinion pieces for markets as diverse as Popular Mechanics and The Washington Post.

​Elizabeth is a frequent contributor to the Center for Science and the Imagination at ASU, and has spoken on futurism at Google, MIT, DARPA’s 100 Year Starship Project, and the White House, among others.

​She lives in the Pioneer Valley of Massachusetts with her spouse, writer  Scott Lynch.

Some recent essays are available on Medium.com.

Find Elizabeth at:

Website: https://www.elizabethbear.com/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/matociquala

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/matociquala/

Cecilia Dominic, Author of The Art of Piracy – Interview

Tags

anthology, Cecilia Dominic, interview, mystery, romance, Steampunk

Followers of this blog may recognize the name Cecilia Dominic. I have read and reviewed many of her books, the steampunk stories being my favorites. As luck would have it, she has a new steampunk novel due out next week – The Art of Piracy! Today she is a guest on Whiskey With My Book, answering my general, personal and possibly impertinent questions. Welcome Cecilia!

Cecilia: Thank you so much for having me, Riley! I always enjoy talking to you, whether online or in person. 😊

Riley: Let’s start with the new book. First, I will say, it is my favorite of your steampunk stories. I can’t wait to share my review tomorrow. But before that, can you tell us a little about The Art of Piracy?

Cecilia: I feel like this story is my best so far, so I’m very glad you like it. The main character Veronica is an art historian who left Terminus (the city that later became Atlanta) in disgrace. She wants to return in triumph to show her family she’s made it in the world. All she has to do is escort a small collection of art back to Terminus on a luxury airship, and she’ll become the curator of the new art museum there. What should be an easy vacation quickly turns complicated, and then deadly. There’s mystery, romance, automatons, and an ancient force that’s been awakened and is not happy.

I got to bring back two of my favorite characters from the Aether Psychics, Inspector Henry Davidson and the Marquis de Monceau, in this story, and they both surprised me, especially the Marquis. He has some interesting characteristics that he finally revealed the reason for in this book.

Riley: The Art of Piracy is part of an anthology of science fiction and fantasy. What can a reader expect if they one-click on Rogue Skies?

Cecilia: I polled the other authors to see what mix we had of science fiction and fantasy, and the mix is about 50/50. The authors are a very creative bunch, and there should be something for everyone. There’s space, Earth-bound fiction, stories with romance, stories without romance, and all kinds of aliens and creatures. Of course with the title, I had to have an airship story.

Riley: What is it like to work with a large group of authors as are connected with Rogue Skies?

Cecilia: The best comparison I can make is that it’s like being in a competitive musical ensemble. I played alto saxophone in concert band and marching band in high school, and then jazz band in college. I also sang in two choirs in college and one in graduate school, so I definitely loved the ensemble life. We all want the same thing, and we all have to do certain tasks toward accomplishing it, but we all have different talents. I’ve been impressed at how energetic our set leaders are and how determined everyone is. Some are quieter than others, but everyone has been working hard.

Riley: Let’s change directions and talk about you. Will you tell us a little bit about yourself?

Cecilia: I’m a redhead, a Pisces, and I love long walks on the beach, cats, cooking, and nontraditional nail polish colors. Since none of those things pay the bills right now, I’m also a clinical psychologist and behavioral sleep medicine specialist with my own private practice. In other words, I’m self-employed, and I help people sleep without drugs. I also hope my books will keep people up all night because they can’t stop reading them, which creates a slight conflict of interest, so that’s why I have a pen name.

Riley: How does your day job affect your books?

Cecilia: I feel very fortunate in that being a psychologist helps me to vicariously experience many different lives. I’m kind of like that guy from Quantum Leap, where I get to dip into other peoples’ realities, and I learn something from each of my clients. It’s also given me a great ear for dialogue.

One thing that many people don’t realize is how my writing life benefits my psychology practice. My clients are similar to my characters in that they want to accomplish a goal, but something – whether it’s them or their circumstances or both – is getting in the way. Being a writer has helped me to be a more creative psychotherapist.

Riley: How was Dragon Con? (And why are all the good Cons so far away from SW Iowa?)

Cecilia: It was so much fun! I was on seven panels and sold books through Bard’s Tower in the vendor hall. The highlight was being on a Pern for Beginners panel with Jody Lynn Nye, who wrote with Anne McCaffrey. I got her to sign my Dragonlovers Guide to Pern book.

As for location, Atlanta in the summer is not the ideal place for a convention where people wear hot, heavy costumes, but we make the best of it. I didn’t cosplay this year since I didn’t have anything new, but I’ll get back to it next year.

Riley: Have you ever had to outwit a pirate on an airship? And how did that turn out?

Cecilia: Luckily for me, the pirate, like many people I encounter in social situations, tried to score free advice about how to sleep better. And, like many people, he turned and ran when I told him to turn off screens two hours before bedtime and get up at the same time every day, even weekends. Apparently airship pirates like to stay up all night on Instagram and sleep in when they can.

Riley: What are some of your favorite books you have read in the last 12 months? Which upcoming books that are on your radar?

Cecilia: I’ve been enjoying the Reliquary series by Sarah Fine. It’s an urban fantasy series with a fascinating magic system. Of course I have to give a shoutout to the talented writer and my good friend Anise Rae. She writes a great alternate history/paranormal romance mashup series called the Mayflower Mages. You’d probably love it. As you know from being in my Bookshelf Challenge group, I’m mostly focused on getting through my backlog of books, but I’m always on the lookout for a good read. (If you would like to join Cecilia’s Bookshelf Challenge group, check it out here on Facebook.)

Riley: What can your fans expect from you in the near future?

Cecilia: I’ll be releasing Mission: Nutcracker, the second book in the Inspector Davidson Mysteries, in November. I’ve been working on it on and off for a few years now, and I’m currently in the process of wrangling it into some sort of shape to send to my editor. After that, I’m switching back to urban fantasy, specifically urban fantasy thrillers, in a spinoff series from my Lycanthropy Files. I’m still brainstorming it and hope to have the first book out next spring.

Riley: Is there anything else you would like us to know about you or your books?

Cecilia: My author tagline is “Smart Fiction with a Twist” since I blend genres, and my scientific background and interests tend to come through. Pretty much everything I write has a mystery at its heart, no matter what the genre, so if you love books with intriguing puzzles and the compelling characters who have to solve them, you’ll probably like mine.

Readers can find me in the following places:

Web page: www.ceciliadominic.com – info about me and my books; I also have a blog and have been writing behind-the-scenes pieces for my books so readers can get a sneak peek at my process
Instagram: www.instagram.com/randomoenophile – pictures of random stuff, food, and Timothy Mouse, the world’s cutest kitty
Facebook: www.facebook.com/CeciliaDominicAuthor – stuff from me, deals from other authors
Twitter: www.twitter.com/CeciliaDominic – random thoughts from me including funny things I overhear

Finally, I would like to assure everyone that I sleep great, although I may not always follow my own rules. 😊

Thanks again for having me, Riley! This was fun.

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About The Art of Piracy

The inaugural flight of a luxury airship turns deadly as pirates, a rogue nobleman, and a disgraced historian race to find a priceless- and powerful – piece of art that’s been hidden on board.

Veronica Devine is determined to return home in triumph and show the family who disowned her that she’s made it as one of the world’s premier art historians. Her one chance – escort art rescued from an abandoned chateau to the new art museum in Terminus. A simple airship trip over the Atlantic aboard a luxury liner promises to be a much-needed break and a chance to get her head on straight before facing the disgrace of her past.

Luc, the Marquis de Monceau, abandoned his chateau in the face of the Prussian invasion and is determined to recover one of the pieces. The problem – he can’t reveal who he truly is, or he’ll be arrested for aiding pirates. The other problem – he’s not sure which of the paintings he’s searching for since the information he needs is hidden in the art itself. Perhaps the beautiful art historian who’s escorting the collection can help him.

As clouds gather above, the ocean surges below, and air pirates pursue the ship. Veronica and Luc – locked in a dance of hidden identity, secret passions, and past betrayals – need to figure out which piece of art holds the key to unlock a metaphysical mystery, or else the pirates will be the least of their problems. Sometimes the clearest skies hide the deadliest secrets.

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The Art of Piracy is one of 25 stories in the collection Rogue Skies.

About Rogue Skies

The skies have gone rogue. Space can’t be tamed. And magic is a law unto itself.

Transport yourself to new worlds where dark magic clashes with witty witches, diabolic demons, feisty fae, and sexy shifters. Or travel through time and space with cosmic spies, space thieves, and telepathic pirates. Add in a dash of Victorian heroes and inhuman soldiers, and you have a one-of-a-kind science fiction and fantasy collection of intoxicating proportions.

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Links

Add Rogue Skies to your Goodreads shelf:

Pre-order Rogue Skies (Releases September 17):

 

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Interview With Celine Jeanjean, Author of The Slave City – With Excerpt

Tags

Asia, Celine Jeanjean, excerpt, fantasy, favorites, interview, series, Steampunk

We have lots to cover today! An interview, some pictures and an excerpt from The Slave City. So it is a long post, but totally worth it! Especially the interview…and the excerpt…and the pictures.

3 years ago, on January 16, 2016, I launched Whiskey With My Book with my review of The Viper and the Urchin (now titled The Bloodless Assassin) by Celine Jeanjean. I soon as I saw the description about an assassin that feared the sight of blood, I knew I had to read it. I downloaded it and read it in one day.

Three years later, The Slave City is Ms. Jeanjean’s third book in this series that I would describe as charming and adventurous. Well, I have a few more words but to see those, check out the review I posted last week.

I invited Celine Jeanjean to be interviewed and here she is to answer my general, personal and possibly impertinent questions! Welcome Celine!

Celine: Thank you so much for having me! And congratulations on your 3 year anniversary!!

Riley: Thank you Celine!

I always like to hear how an author got started writing. What inspired you to start making up stories and writing them down?

Celine: I’ve been making up stories for as long as I can remember. I grew up without a TV so I was a voracious reader as a child, and one of my favourite things to do when I wasn’t reading was making up stories based on what I read. I’d make up prequels, sequels, spin-offs—basically anything that allowed me to spend more time in these worlds I loved.

It wasn’t until I was a teenager that it occurred to me to write these stories down, and that was when I realised I wanted to be a writer. But back then it didn’t seem like a feasible way to earn enough money to live, so when it came time to launch myself into the working world, I gave up my dream of being a writer and got one of those sensible corporate jobs.

But I never could fully let go of my habit of making up stories—entertaining myself during commutes (and during boring meetings!) So after a few years of working various jobs I didn’t enjoy, I decided life was too short not to try pursuing my passion. I wrote a couple of novels that I wasn’t happy with, and then one day had the very amusing idea of writing a short story about an assassin who was afraid of blood.

The short story turned into a novel, and then into a series, and I haven’t looked back since!

Riley: Will you tell us a little about The Slave City and The Viper and the Urchin series?

Celine: Of course! The Viper and the Urchin series follows a team of misfits as they get in and out of scrapes and adventures, with copious arguments and banter.

In Book 1 of the series, The Bloodless Assassin, we meet the two main characters, the aforementioned assassin who’s afraid of blood—Longinus, who is also very particular and fastidious about his appearance— and Rory, a scrawny, dirty pickpocket with dreadlocks, attitude, and big dreams despite her very poor background.  They clash, they argue, they don’t like working together, but ultimately as they get to know each other better, they become real friends, connecting through the fact that they’re both misfits in their own ways.

As the team grows, we meet Cruikshank, a no-nonsense, cigar smoking female machinist, Adelma, an alcoholic smuggler, proficient brawler, and a walking slab of muscle, and Rafe, a very sarcastic elite fighter (and the self-proclaimed love interest for Rory).

The Slave City is the first book in the series where all five of them truly have to work together as a team. Things go wrong, of course, and adventure, arguments, and general fun ensues!

The series is based in a secondary world, and is Steampunk flavoured rather than hardcore Steampunk. There’s also no hint of Victorian sensibilities or attitudes. If anything the ladies are more raucous, and more inclined to swear, make crude jokes, and get into fights than the boys! Definitely a series for those who like strong female characters and humour.

Riley: There are many things that have intrigued me in The Viper and the Urchin series. I’d love to hear about your inspiration for:
1) Varanguards helmets with lethal ponytails.

Celine: Honestly, I was searching for something really cool to give these elite fighters as weapons. I came across an incredible video of a Chinese martial artist fighting with a chain with a spike at its end. I’d never seen anyone move so quickly or gracefully, so I knew I had to incorporate that in my story somehow.

As with everything I borrow, I gave it a bit of a twist. I also really like the visual of those helmets with the horsehair ponytails, like with the Queen’s Horse Guards. So I combined the two and gave the Varanguards their particular fighting style: helmets with long horsehair ponytails at the end of which are lethally sharp blades. They fight in a dance-like fashion, swinging their ponytails, enabling them to strike opponents all around them.

Riley: 2) In The Slave City – the long staircase up the wall to the upper part of the city.

Celine: I was in Spain, in the city of Ronda, where part of the city is perched a top a vertiginous gorge. There’s no river at the bottom of the gorge, and further back, where the cliff is less steep, there’s a zigzagging staircase down to the valley. It’s nowhere near as dramatic as the staircase in The Slave City, but as I mentioned before, I like to add twists to the things I borrow for inspiration. So I turned the staircase into a great snaking thing that climbed up a vertiginous cliff.

Then as far as the myriad of merchants there, they’re inspired by the incredible ingenuity and variety of stalls found all over the place in South East Asia.

Riley: 3) In The Bloodless Assassin – the Wet Market (I was amazed by the description of all the dripping goods in the market).

Celine: This is based on a real market! In Hong Kong, where I used to live, wet markets refer to markets selling fruit, vegetables, meat, and fish. The first wet market I encountered shortly after moving to Hong Kong left a hugely vivid impression on me.

It was the middle of summer, and swelteringly hot and humid. The streets throughout the market were littered with puddles of a murky mix of rain water from a recent storm, juice, viscera, and blood. I walked through it all with shorts and flip flops on, and I have to admit, I flicked a healthy portion of the muck up the backs of my legs. I don’t recommend that part of the experience! But it was such an assault on the senses—it remains one of my most vivid memories of my arrival in Hong Kong.

Then I went to a wet market in Cambodia while it was pouring with rain. The vendors had set up a hodgepodge of tarps and plastic sheets to create a makeshift covered market. Water slipped through every crack, so that there was a constant dripping noise throughout the market.

I combined the two to create the dripping wet market description for Damsport, since the creation of the city itself has overall been heavily inspired by my time in Asia.

Riley: 4) Cruikshank – I have loved this character since I first met her and was pleased to see her get a hefty role in The Slave City.

Celine: I’m so pleased to hear that! I have such a soft spot for Cruikshank.

Part of the inspiration for her came from the fact that I find it a bit frustrating how often main female characters are limited to being young, attractive, and slender. The women I grew up around are really strong, they’ve got muscular arms, strong hands, and they’re really no-nonsense and capable. I’m the odd one out, having very little practical intelligence and being always off with the fairies in my head!  So when I created Cruikshank, I wanted to create a character who reflected this idea I grew up with, of women being really strong and capable.

I also liked the idea of portraying an older woman who is single, doesn’t have or want children, and is completely comfortable with who she is and with the life she’s built for herself. Spinsters in the middle-ages were women who earned their living without depending on a man, often by spinning wool into yarn. They were respected members of their community, and back then the term spinster didn’t carry the negative connotation it has now.

So Cruikshank is a modern/steampunk interpretation of this idea of a spinster. She’s completely independent, successful in her career as a machinist, but at the same very warm, and almost motherly, even though she’s completely comfortable with her choice not to marry or have children.

And then I added the huge cog tattoo on her arm and the cigar smoking because it felt right for her, and because it seemed pretty cool!

Riley: I am fascinated with Longinus. He holds fashion in such high regard, is enamored of his own words and at the same time is very intelligent. He often brings an outside-of-the-box perspective to the situation. How did Longinus evolve as a character in your mind?

Celine: At first Longinus was a funny character I wrote to make myself laugh. I just thought, wouldn’t it be funny to have an assassin who faints at the sight of blood? I also added the fashion obsession so as to create more amusing scenes for him to clash with Rory.

But the more time I spent with this character, the more I realised how tragic it was that someone would put so much effort into how he was seen by the outside world. He’s so obsessed with his appearance, not because he’s vapid and shallow, but because he’s deeply wounded from his childhood. He’s actually a very lonely person, who tries so very hard to be a stereotype of an assassin and a gentleman, because deep down he feels so utterly inadequate. His fear of blood is a huge source of shame for him, and to make up for it he controls his appearance with obsessive attention to detail.

The bamboo huts I stayed at while living and working on the rice farm. You can see the jungle all around, we could hear the gibbons singing in the morning. That’s a rice paddy in front of them, with quite mature rice plants.

And so although he’s funny and ridiculous at times, he’s actually a very smart and accomplished man. He’s just a bit eccentric, and you have to see past all his flouncing about in silk!

Riley: You are traveling in Asia. What do you like best about your wandering life? What do you like least?

The island where the cheeky macaques broke into the bungalow! My partner is a graphic designer so he also works on the move, same as me. We set this up as one of our little offices. The view was pretty good 😉

Celine: I absolutely love arriving somewhere new and exploring. I love the freedom of being able to decide I want to move somewhere new, packing up my things, and heading off on a new adventure. This is part of the reason I write the books I do—I like to create new places for people to discover.

That sensation of stepping off a plane/train/bus, having the smells, sights, and sounds wash over me, and not understanding the language—that is one of my favourite things. I get to collect so much inspiration, and then I get to feed it back into my writing, which is fun!

Working on that same island, but sat in a hammock on the beach. That’s Slave City on the computer.

As to what I like the least—that’s a tricky one, because even the negatives don’t bother me much. But travel delays is probably the biggest one. Anyone who has spent a chunk of time in Thailand will tell you that things there run according to ‘Thai time’. That means expect 2-3 hours delay for your train, minimum. Your bus might take an extra 4 hours to make the journey for some unplanned reason.

In Northern Thailand, near Pai. The house we lived in looked over the rice paddies which are dry this time of year. Those are water buffaloes out there grazing.

But I don’t mind that. I’ve sat in countless bus stations writing away on my laptop, not minding that I had to wait around. That’s the big advantage of being a writer—delays are just extra writing time disguised as inconveniences!

Riley: What books have you read recently that you really enjoyed?

Celine: I’m reading The Golem and The Jinni at the moment, a historical fantasy novel based in New York in the late 19th century. It blends Jewish and Arabic mythologies and it’s beautifully written.

I also recently binged on a lot of Terry Pratchett books—The Witches books in particular. Phenomenal female characters in there that made me laugh out loud. If you like Cruikshank and you haven’t read the Witches, I recommend Wyrd Sisters to start, and Witches Abroad to follow.

My most recent Steampunk read was The Aeronaut’s Windlass by Jim Butcher. Fun, witty, rollicking adventure.

And towards the end of last year I read the whole Conqueror series by Conn Iggulden, a Historical Fiction series which follows the rise of Genghis Khan and the incredible way the Mongols briefly conquered most of Asia and Europe. Fascinating stuff, and a really engrossing read.

Riley: Can you tell us about what you are working on next?

Celine: I’m putting the finishing touches on The Dollmaker, the book following The Slave City. And I’ve started work on The White Hornet (working title), which is the book coming after that! I’ve got a few more books planned for this series, which I’m excited to get out there.

Farther on the horizon I’m planning a completely different trilogy that’s more traditionally steampunk than The Viper and the Urchin. It will be based in Victorian London, and it will be quite dark and gothic in feel. Inspiration for now is very much coming from Phantom of the Opera and Frankenstein.

Riley:  I can’t wait for the series to continue!  And your dark and gothic series idea sounds like something I would devour!  Thank so much for being here today Celine!

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Celine Jeanjean, is French, grew up in England, lived in Hong Kong for half her twenties, and now she floats around the world as a nomadic writer.

When she’s not writing she can be found swimming with black tipped reef sharks, hiking in the jungle, or sitting in her hammock, reading a good book.

Her books feature badass female characters, quirky misfits, and lots of humour and adventure.

The best place to connect with her and keep up to date with what’s going on book wise and travel adventure wise is over at her newsletter:
http://celinejeanjean.com/freebook/

New joiners get a free novella from The Viper and the Urchin series as a welcome gift, too!

Otherwise she also has a facebook page and instagram account:
https://www.facebook.com/CelineJeanjeanAuthor/
https://www.instagram.com/celinejeanjean/

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Excerpt from The Slave City

“You do know talking to yourself’s the first sign of senility?” a voice at her elbow said.

Cruikshank turned to find Rory grinning at her.

“You do know that eavesdropping is rude?” Cruikshank replied with a wry smile.

Rory’s grin widened. “Just practicing ahead of our mission. Spying needs good eavesdropping skills, right?”

Cruikshank gave the girl an amused look. Rory was fond of “practicing” eavesdropping—almost as fond as she was of “practicing” stealing and picking pockets.

She was so slight that she looked as though a breath of wind might knock her over. She had put some weight on since her days as a scrawny street urchin, but no matter how much Rory ate—and she ate quite a lot—she didn’t seem to get any bigger.

Her small frame looked all the smaller for the masses of hair that dwarfed her. It was matted and clumped in thick segments that looked more like rope than hair, trailing down her back. She had taken to wearing small copper rings and tubes in it, slipping them up some of the ropelike segments.

But Rory’s most unusual trait was her eye color: they were blue. Damsians were a dark people—dark of skin, dark of eye, and black of hair. Rory had the dark skin of a Damsian, and at a glance, she could pass for one. But her blue eyes marked her out as having foreign blood too.

Growing up abandoned on the Damsian streets, she had no idea of her parentage, and Cruikshank often wondered what had happened to her parents. Her rough childhood never seemed to hold Rory back, though. She was one of the most positive and enthusiastic people Cruikshank knew.

“If you ask me,” Rory said, “it’s worth the journey to Azyr just to help them Azyrian rebels get their revolution underway. No person’s got the right to take away someone’s freedom and make a slave of them. That just ain’t right.”

“Don’t forget that’s the unofficial part of our mission,” Cruikshank said. “We can’t be seen to interfere with the way other countries or cities are run. That would put Damsport in a very tricky position politically.”

Rory tapped her nose. “Me and unofficial missions are like kin. It’s like picking pockets—you don’t go around advertising you’re a thief.” She gave a little laugh. “Or an assassin, for that matter.”

Cruikshank followed her gaze to where Longinus was fussing over the porters carrying one of his trunks.

“Careful, careful!” he called. “This contains priceless alchemical equipment. Gently, gently.”

The porters inched the trunk down to the ground, following Longinus’s instructions. Cruikshank was amused to notice that Longinus had them wearing gloves. They were burly men, dark-skinned and sweaty, and their ragged, dirty trousers were incongruous next to the clean white gloves Longinus had given them.

Longinus opened the trunk and inspected the contents. “Good, good. You may continue. And remember, if you drop the trunk, the wrong liquids might mix together and cause you to die a most agonising death.”

Cruikshank frowned. “That’s not true, is it?”

“Nah,” Rory replied with a smile. “Just something to scare people into doing things the Longinus way. One of Adelma’s sailors were gonna load his stuff on the ship for him, and Longinus nearly bust a vein when the sailor picked up his clothing trunk and threw it onto the deck. He’s hired his own porters now and is paying them extra to do it all the way he wants. The time it’s taking him, I hope he’ll be done before the ship’s ready to cast off.”

Cruikshank shook her head. “He’s an odd one, that boy.”

Everything about Longinus was conspicuous, from the way he spoke to the way he dressed. Right now he stuck out like a whore in a convent, with his teal silk shirt, burnt-orange trousers, and hat with an elaborate teal-and-orange feather arrangement.

He wore his hair almost down to his shoulders, and somehow, it always looked as though he had just stepped out of the barber’s. With his thin moustache and elegant, jewel-encrusted sword at his hip, he looked as though he belonged to a bygone era, not to the fast-developing industrial city of Damsport.

The porters picked up the trunk again, under a constant stream of warnings from Longinus.

“He ain’t happy to be bringing his precious alchemical equipment,” Rory said.

“You’re telling me. I’ve had to listen to his endless complaining ever since he found out the official purpose of our mission.” Cruikshank turned to Rory. “What about you? Are you ready?”

“Cruikshank, I own, like, five things. ’Course I’m ready.”

Cruikshank slung an arm around Rory’s neck and pulled out a cigar. “Well, lovey, in that case, we’re not far off ready to leave. Rafe’s already on board, checking on supplies, and Longinus should hopefully be finished with his fussing in an hour or so. We’d best get ourselves on the ship and get ready to cast off. You excited? I remember when I was sent on my first mission. I could barely sleep the night before.”

“Am I excited? Going to a far-off city? Adventuring, thieving, and spying? Nah. Actually, you know what? It all sounds duller than ditchwater. I reckon I’ll just stay here.” Rory winked.

Cruikshank grinned back at her.

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Links

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Pre-order The Slave City (Releases January 31) from Amazon:

Note: The first book in the series, The Bloodless Assassin (formally titled The Viper and the Urchin) will be free February 2-5. That will be the perfect time to start reading the series if it is new to you.

Purchase The Bloodless Assassin:

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