Omnivoracious

Omni Exclusive: China Miéville on Dial H and the Superhero B-List

A winner of the Hugo, Nebula, World Fantasy, British Fantasy, and Arthur C. Clarke awards (to name a few), China Miéville specializes in the fantastical and the weird. His literary approach to genre themes earned him a legion of fans (most recently with his novel Railsea in 2012), but Miéville remains a fan as well--of comics. The personal and professional interests collided in the best of ways during DC’s New 52 initiative, when the publisher announced a new Dial H series with Miéville at the helm with artist Mateus Santolouco. In the following exclusive essay, Miéville reveals his long history with the series and how that history led to a fresh, successful start for the book while remaining true to its core weirdness.

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I wasn't very good at canon. Oh, I got better as I got older, but as a kid, I pieced together my comics knowledge like a mudlark, scobbing together whatever titles I could find in local shops and libraries – new copies, second-hand ones, beaten-up and ripped-to-shreds remnants - without any understanding of publisher or continuity. I’d cross-fertilize them with the various exciting bits and pieces I'd picked up, all the rumours and half-truths regarding superheroes.

This led to an idiosyncratic version of the DCU. Once, many years ago, as a very young child, I was delighted to discover a pile of comics in an attic. They featured a blond, orange-shirted superhero who could speak to fish. “Ah,” I thought, settling down to read. “This must be this ‘Superman’ of whom I've heard so much.” I was intrigued that so many of his adventures were maritime.

As the years passed, I got a bit more systematic, but I never lost the excitement at the sheer chaotic variety of costumes, monikers and powers I might find fighting for justice, every time I opened a comic. It was always a surprise. This addiction to the proliferation of the superheroic is something many of us never grow out of.

In fact, inventing superheroes is one of the basic games of childhood. Tie a towel around your neck and come up with a powerset, all the abilities you think you’ll need. Justify that hot mess as coherent by some ingenious, tendentious argument. Finally, give your wonder a name. (Electrical blast and tiger stripes? Electrotiger!) This is what we do. Like countless kids around the world, I was a martyr to superherogenesis.

Writing with Repercussions

Writing isn’t just about action and dialogue and description. It’s not even just about all that and a few characters and a plot. Because what brings it to life—more than vivid descriptions, intricate world building, and scintillating dialogue, all put together—is having a world whose characters and other bits are reactive, responsive, and, most importantly, interactive. Having consequences for every choice, and equal and opposite reactions for every novelistic action.

Without repercussions, it feels a bit like throwing a rock into a pool—without it making a sound, a ripple, or a splash. Which is to say, it feels awesomely unsatisfying—and the opposite of immersive. It feels flat, and frustratingly unreal, no matter how gorgeous a picture of the pool and the rock description paints, and no matter how well-described the action of throwing the rock.

So, What Does It Mean?

Reactiveness and interactivity are the binding agents of your story. Without it, even if your dialogue, action, description, and plot are all beyond excellent, we’re going to be stuck in a serious state of wanting more. And by more, I mean that we’re want to know:

1. What emotions people are displaying (or, for the point-of-view character, just plain having)?
2. What thoughts people are broadcasting (or, what thoughts is the POV character is having)?
3. How people are expressing themselves and communicating with one another nonverbally?

Graphic Novel Friday: Iron: or, the War After

I fell in love with Iron: or, the War After immediately upon holding it. The compact hardcover sports a red, textured cover with an embossed golden-colored rabbit and tree. Snowflakes drift from the limbs. It’s a package unlike most—and then I opened it.

Artist and writer S.M. Vidaurri’s watercolor treatment features predominant greys and blues with occasional splashes of red (a recurring robin, for example). The word he crafts is one of “constant winter,” and it’s populated by anthropomorphic animals. These creatures live in an age of quiet rebellion, post-wartime, where a faction of animals plan a revolution while those in power seek their hideouts. The story is rife with paranoia, threats of betrayal lurk in the wintry corners of dialogue balloons. A rabbit, Hardin, is the focus of the first chapter as he escapes an enemy’s clutches with stolen documents. All of this—the war, the rebellion, what lies within the documents--unfolds at a measured pace, and it keeps the reader at a crossroad: quickly turn the pages to uncover the mystery, or linger to appreciate the stark, absorbing artwork.

As future chapters develop, Hardin’s children become the focus while the threatening forces grow closer to their targets. There’s a train sequence that is heightened by its chugging course through the snow; plot points slowly collide, upsetting the quiet nature of the book with an explosive reveal. If all the heartbreak of the finale weren’t enough, Iron ends with a letter from a son to his father. It casts one last ray of wintertime light onto a character, opening his motivations long after it is too late.

Publisher Archaia continues to produce these under-the-radar gems—see also our spotlight on their much louder and fast-paced Tale of Sand—that reward any reader lucky enough to happen upon them.

--Alex

Guy Gavriel Kay on Writing River of Stars

When you pick up a Guy Gavriel Kay book, you know you are in for an intense experience. Guy Gavriel Kay is a master at creating compelling, complex, human characters in which the reader can’t help but become invested—even if their initial presentation is somewhat less than heroic. His fluency with themes can make you actually care about abstract concepts just as much as you do about the life or death of a character. And the combination of the above makes for books known for both their poignancy and resonance.

So, of course, I was beyond thrilled when Guy Gavriel Kay—winner of the 2008 World Fantasy Award, the International Goliardos Prize, two-time winner of the Aurora Award, and internationally bestselling author besides—agreed to do an interview on how he wrote his upcoming novel, River of Stars.

I hope you enjoy!

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Susan: One of the most striking things about River of Stars is that it feels so incredibly human and grounded—the relationships between the characters in particular, but also the battle scenes—which gives it great poignancy and gets us readers super invested. How does a writer achieve that level of realism?

Guy Gavriel Kay: I have a longstanding one-liner, but it is only partly a joke, that “I've always depended on the intelligence of strangers.” The riff on A Streetcar Named Desire is actually at the center of my writing. The kind of “investment” on the part of readers that you refer to depends, it seems to me, on an author respecting both readers and characters—and I think they amount to the same thing. This means, of course, giving room for characters to emerge and become significant for a reader. I think that's a key.

Susan: At the same time as feeling grounded, River of Stars has the resonance of a myth or legend. How do you invest your writing with that kind of feeling?

Guy Gavriel Kay: You are being generous right off the top here. Thank you. In River of Stars I was interested (as always) in how the past affects the present day. The present time of the story, but also, by extension for the reader, his or her own time and life, if I do it properly. Looking back on long-ago events can carry that kind of legendary quality, and I wanted to explore an awareness that even as things are happening now in the book, later generations might see them as legendary events of their past—and, as we all know, the past gets changed by how it is remembered. That's a theme of the book. 

Susan: There are many smaller tales in River of Stars that all wind together in ways that seem at first largely inconsequential (plot-wise), and then become incredibly, earth-shatteringly important. How do you make sure the reader can trace back the ripples of every stone?

Why Zombies? A Defense of the Z Word

When it comes to zombies, I will not apologize.

In darker, future times, that statement might take on a different, more ominous meaning. For now I simply mean that I won't apologize for my cultural obsession with zombies, the stacks of books and movies about them that clutter my home, that this is my third time in three months writing on the subject here, or that this probably won't be the last time I do so. Allow me to explain why.

Vampires vs. Zombies - or How the Zombie (Fan) is Misunderstood

Beyond the built-in genre-based bias from which all horror typically suffers, zombies have developed a reductive reputation –- one from which their horror cousins, vampires, seem immune.

To state the obvious, vampires historically have been portrayed as cunning, mysterious, sexy creatures. They're cold-blooded killers, yet from the works of Polidori and Bram Stoker to Ann Rice and Stephanie Meyer, bloodsuckers have made the ladies' swoon.

Zombies, by comparison, are typically portrayed as grunting, ravenous, simple creatures. That's fair. But those who don't watch these kinds of films or read these kinds of books seem to apply the creatures' traits to their fans. And that's not fair. "You've made a plan for the zombie apocalypse? How [eyeroll] cute." (We'll get back to that.) Non-fans merely see a barrage of violence resulting in lots and lots of splatter repeated from one story to the next. But to see no more than the gore is to miss what's really going on, on many levels.

First and foremost, unlike vampires, zombies typically are not characters. They're part of the setting; they're often creatively concocted and masterfully manufactured (particularly in the visual sense), but they're nonetheless mere catalysts whose sole narrative purpose is to propel the real characters and the real plot. Once one accepts that basic but crucial premise, the value of the rest of the story can click.

What Zombie Stories are Really About

Credit where it's due, the modern zombie is actually a direct descendant of the vampire. Just as Bram Stoker is considered the godfather of the modern vampire, so film director George Romero established our basic understanding of and generally accepted "rules" for zombies. Romero, by his own admission, ripped off Richard Matheson's vampire novel I Am Legend. It always comes back to books!

So what are these "rules"? There's the general stuff: how zombies are made, how they move, how to stop them. But again, it's not really about the zombies. Romero released the movie Night of the Living Dead in 1968, during the Vietnam War. In a way, every zombie story since has been, to some extent, a guiltless war story. Amid the zombie hordes, we follow the everyman hero as he faces an enemy that is beyond human and therefore beyond reason or redemption. Likewise these stories have been, like some of the greatest literature, social commentary -- a vehicle by which to confront our own ethics and morals. Just beyond the immediacy of a zombie attack lies the real threat: mankind. Even the more lighthearted and increasingly popular field of zombie romance forces us to consider: "When civilization as we know it ends, how do we hold onto our very humanity?"

But those are just the narrative novels. Among the most popular (not to mention clever) zombie books on the market today are field guides and how-to manuals. Often these books are tagged as parody and are purchased as gag gifts. There's nothing wrong with having a laugh, but there's more to these books than you'd expect, as well.

The Government is Ready: Are You?

How Important Is It to Write About [Vampires]?

Do you have a question about your fantasy novel, short story, or spot of flash fiction that’s burning for an answer (or even just a question about writing or the column in general)? If so, please email in your questions to: me “at” susanjmorris “dot” com.

 

Dear Susan,

I read your post in response to the question concerning the importance of genre. When writing nonfiction, a memoir to be precise, how critical is the author's celebrity and platform to the success of the work? Without platform or celebrity, is the project worth the effort? 

Thanks,
Chuck

Hi Chuck,

I’m glad you saw my column! And thanks so much for sending in the question. Though, I’m going to take it and stretch it out a bit, since this column is focused on fantasy and science fiction, and fantasy memoires have yet to prove numerous enough to birth a genre (Darth Vader: Behind the Mask!). So I’m going to take your question to be: how important is a topic’s popularity to the success of the work, and without a popular topic, is the project worth the effort? (And to translate into fantasy terms: how important is [writing about vampires] to the success of the work, and without [writing about vampires], is the project worth the effort?)

To answer this revised question, I’m going to attack it from three angles: the impact of a topic on the marketability of a book, what makes a book something I want to read, and figuring out what makes a book “worth it” for you as an individual. Each piece should help to answer the question in a slightly different way, and by the end, between them, hopefully you’ll be able to come to your own conclusions.

Best,
Susan

Writing About [Vampires]

Oh man. I know it can get frustrating when it seems like the market is blowing up for books that you just don’t want to write. Sometimes, it can be tempting to think that if you just wrote about [vampires], or whatever’s popular at the moment, you could for sure sell your book, since people are clearly snapping them up like cakepops. And there may be something to that! When I was a kid, there was one unicorn book in the whole elementary school’s library. I really wanted another book on unicorns. I would have probably read any book on unicorns. But tragically, there were no other books on unicorns. So you totally could have monopolized my market, right there.

Sarah Russo on How to Promote Your Book (and Yourself)

Do you have a question about your fantasy novel, short story, or spot of flash fiction that’s burning for an answer (or even just a question about writing or the column in general)? If so, please email in your questions to: me “at” susanjmorris “dot” com.

 

Dear Susan,

My third book, In Search of Sal, a murder mystery inspired by a true story will be published in October. What are some things I could be doing now to help promote the book? Any ideas? 

-Lou

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Hi Lou,

Thanks for the question! And boy, is it a doozy. I mean, as writers, we spend forever concepting and writing and getting feedback and rewriting and editing and banging our heads against the table and writing some more . . . That once we realize our books are actually going to become things? Like, things out there, in the real world? It can be a total scramble to try to figure out and put together any sort of support system that might possibly get people reading it. In short: publicity is hard.

Too hard for me! But not too hard for a good publicist (worth their weight in truffles, I swear). Enter Sarah Russo. Sarah Russo is a literary publicist, working with authors, and everything from film makers to app designers besides. She is also the U. S. Director of Publicity for And Other Stories, and cut her teeth working for the likes of Alfred A. Knopf, Doubleday, and Scribner. And fortunately for us, she was happy to answer your question. I hope you enjoy her response!

Best,
Susan

Sarah Russo on How to Promote Your Book (and Yourself)

I love this question. It tells me an author is evolving and starting to think differently about their work. First things first, if you’re publishing your third book I would stop thinking about promoting them individually and start thinking about promoting you as the creative force behind your work. And this goes for artists of any genre whether it is literature, music, film, designers, you name it—start promoting you, and then you have a solid platform from which to engage fans about each project you create. But promoting you isn’t all me, me, me! You need to offer something to people, something interesting and engaging.

This hints at the next important part of this promotion puzzle: branding. There are so many great resources out there that talk about branding, but at the end of the day it’s just about one simple thing: adding to the discussion and having something smart to contribute in your area of expertise. Now don’t walk away, I’m not telling you that you need to spend four hours a day on Facebook and Twitter to engage with the community. Nobody has time for that, and if you do you’re not writing your next book. I recommend finding the platform that works best for you, whether that is Tumblr, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest or a niche social community, either genre specific or subject specific. Give it 5-10 minutes of your day, twice a day, and make it work for you too. And I mean by this, if you love NPR and find it adds something to your life and engagement with the world, follow Brian Lehrer on Facebook or The Picture Show blog. If you don’t get something out of it, you won’t use it. But don’t stop there, share what you love!

What’s the right format for you?

Valar Dohaeris: An Interview With George R.R. Martin

The epic fantasy television series Game of Thrones, which returns for its third season at the end of March, has been a magnificent hit, winning award after award and attracting larger and increasingly mainstream audiences with each season. It's been such a boon for HBO that the network announced last month a new two-year development deal with the man behind the books that launched the series, George R.R. Martin. "Valar Dohaeris," as they say. (Translated from the fictional GOT language High Valyrian, this means "All Men Must Serve," and it's also the title of the season's first episode.) In this case, Martin must serve the many facets of his inner muse and take advantage of an opportunity to reach a massive audience with more of his ideas.

Still, this (like many of his beyond-the-books projects) comes as bittersweet news to some of Martin's die-hard fans who, with rabid anticipation, await his next novel. Though it's been only two years since A Dance With Dragons (Book 5 in the Song of Ice and Fire series) was released, A Feast For Crows (Book 4) came out in 2005 and A Storm of Swords (Book 3, the first half of which is the source for this season on TV) came out in 2000. New projects, some worry, could mean even more time between releases for the final two books: The Winds of Winter and A Dream of Spring. And the books, after all, are what it's really all about, right?

Well, we can all relax and even rejoice. Amazon recently confirmed that Martin is not too distracted by these other endeavors and is, in fact, actively working on the new novel.

At the risk of exasperating fans further, we do admit that we waylaid Mr. Martin for a brief telephone conversation -- during which he discussed his history with television, how the show affects the pace of his writing, which actor’s portrayal he prefers to the character he wrote, and what’s really important when it comes to finding the right actor to portray his characters.

Warning: Mr. Martin does hint at a potential spoiler in the first two answers.

Robin A. Rothman: What about this season are you most excited to see translated from your written description to come to life on screen?

George R.R. Martin: [Potential Spoiler Alert] Well, excited and apprehensive is the Red Wedding. I don't know if you want to write about that without spoiling things. I think it will have more impact if it takes people unexpectedly, but certainly that's the scene that both myself and I think most of my hardcore fans are looking forward to with a mixture of anticipation and apprehension.

RAR: It's so graphic in the novel. You've probably seen it already. Do you feel it captures what you wrote? Were there any major changes to that?

GRRM: [Potential Spoiler Alert] I have not seen it. I've been very busy writing the new books and doing other projects this year, so I did not have a chance to visit the set. At one point I was looking at going over there when they were filming it and maybe even being one of the casualties, but I just couldn't find the time to get over to Belfast, so I haven't seen any of it. I've seen no footage this season.

RAR: So, do you watch the show in real time like fans do? Are you watching it having special screenings and parties with friends when it comes on air?

GRRM: It's a combination of both. I will be going out to L.A. in a couple weeks for the premiere; they'll be screening the show for an invited crowd at the Grauman's Chinese Theatre. That'll be only four or five days before the debut, though. In some cases they'll send me a screener or a disc of a rough cut to look at ahead of time, but in the majority of cases I'm seeing it just as the fans are when it comes on the air.

RAR: Your process when you're working with the television people... are you hands-on with it?

GRRM: Fortunately I was either very lucky or very smart to team up with David Benioff and Dan Weiss -- the showrunners and executive producers of the show who write most of the episodes -- and, you know, I have a great pair of partners there. They're doing a terrific job with the show and the show is their baby and the books are my baby. So, I'm gonna keep writing the books and keep ahead of these guys before they catch up with me.

RAR: You're known for working at a comfortable pace. You're working on a lot of projects, you take your time and you offer really dense, detailed volumes. Has the pace of the TV series actually put any pressure on you or changed your pace of writing?

How to Write a Damn Good Dance Scene

Do you have a question about your fantasy novel, short story, or spot of flash fiction that’s burning for an answer (or even just a question about writing or the column in general)? If so, please email in your questions to  me "at" susanjmorris "dot" com.

 

Dear Susan,

I attended the panel you were part of at PAX on how to write a damn good fight scene and your advice (and your panel mates?) was very helpful. I managed to write myself into a corner where I was forced to describe my (immortal) characters at a Ball without any knowledge of how Ballroom dancing works. I've looked into videos and the like but it hasn't really helped, any advice on how to write a damn good dance scene?

Many Thanks,

Alexander

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Hi Alexander,

I’m glad you found the panel at PAX useful (other panelists: Erik Scott de Bie and Erin M. Evans)! And thanks so much for the question.

So, it sounds like you’ve started your research into writing a dance scene by looking at videos, which is great! That will be really helpful for learning how the dances you’re using work and look, as well as understanding the community and history that surrounds them. It might also be useful to read some interviews or chat with some dancers about dancing, both so you can harness some of their passion for your book, and so you can figure out how your characters might think about it. And, of course, taking a dance class could also help, so that you can make a proper sensory experience of it.

That being said, when it comes down to it, executing a dance scene—like a fight scene, or any action scene, really—isn’t really about the dancing at all. It’s far more about the conversation the characters are having through the medium of the action. After all, the physical actions of your characters are really just another form of expression! Almost like a secondary conversation, underlying the primary verbal conversation—albeit one usually more emotional than intellectual in content. Which means that the most important thing to figure out about your dance scene isn’t how the dance works, but rather, what the characters’ intentions are—and how your characters can express them through their dance-oriented interaction.

To help you get started, I’ve outlined below the three basic steps in writing character-intense action scenes, from brainstorming, to sketching it out, to execution. I hope it helps!

Part 1: Identify Character Intentions

So, one of the first things you likely think about when sketching out a new scene of any variety, is who the characters are and what they want. Which is awesome! Because really, once you get that down, the rest is cake. Or, if not precisely cake, at least more cakelike. See, all things flow from the characters’ intentions. If Character A wants to eat a magic cupcake, and Character B wants the magic cupcake for herself? That’s great tension right there! And fodder for some awesome dramalicious conflict. All you need to figure out then is:

1. What each character knows about the magic cupcake (and, of course, what there is to know about the magic cupcake).
2. What each character knows about the other character’s intentions regarding said magic cupcake.
3. What each character would do to get said magic cupcake.
4. How each character would react to the other character’s actions regarding said magic cupcake.
5. What each character wants to do with the magic cupcake should they win it in the end.

Or, basically, just make sure to nail down the flow of information, intention, and interaction between your characters on a high level.

Graphic Novel Friday: Sort-of Endings for Hellblazer and Swamp Thing

Recently, two iconic Vertigo characters bid adieu to the status quo in comics, either ending their grand run or finishing a stellar arc with select creators.

One of the most surprising announcements in recent comics news was that publisher Vertigo elected to end their longest running series, Hellblazer, with issue #300 (available in digital format or via our third party marketplace). Writer Peter Milligan diligently wrote the book for as long as I read it in single issues, and his issues  comprise the most consistently entertaining run in comics that I’ve read in the past decade. Milligan reinvented anti-hero, dark warlock, possible immortal, chain-smoking John Constantine as a reluctant husband and grown-up. Sure, Constantine still ran into the usual demons and forces of evil, but under Milligan’s pen John met and wed Epiphany, a young witch who tamed the cad, who showed him that there was more to life than death. In Milligan’s 50 issues of Hellblazer, John traveled across the world, was attacked by his own trench coat, lost a thumb, gained a nephew, and sacrificed his father-in-law to the First of the Fallen (not a good thing).

I read the final issue three times last weekend because Milligan infuses multiple twists into the overarching plot surrounding John’s ultimate fate, or fates. His interactions with Epiphany are heartfelt and heartbreaking husband and wife moments. Plus, Milligan ties up many loose plot threads without making it feel like a chore or checklist. And that last page? Wow. Coupled with longtime Hellblazer artists Giuseppe Camuncoli and Stefano Landini, this is the way to end a beloved series—with a literal “bang” and a metaphorical one. I suggest beginning with the Scab collection and reading from there to this final issue. It all makes sense at the long journey’s end, I promise. John Constantine will be folded into the proper DC Universe with Constantine #1, out later this month with a new creative team.