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Mythic Interlude: Brooklyn Book Festival
Sep. 16th, 2007 10:02 pmI had a lovely time today at the Brooklyn Book Festival, where I had the chance to meet in person ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
melissa_writing and libba_bray, hear cassandraclare read from her recent novel, and put good-sport sdn on the spot with a question.* I spoke with Gavin Grant of Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet, a literary speculative fiction periodical that (according to another attendee) is "smart but not pretentious," and chatted briefly with Heidi Macdonald of Publishers Weekly's "The Beat".
Not only was it a great day to meet in person people I've admired both online and through their writing, but it was a fun chance to run into old friends. Jessica deCourcey Hines and I went to college together--we lived on the same floor of our dorm freshman year--and hadn't seen each other in easily ten years. But she recognized me right away and we had a chance to talk a bit about what we're both doing; she's got an agent shopping around a manuscript of hers right now, which I'm thrilled to hear. I always suspected she'd be one of the members of my class most likely to write the Great American Novel.
As for mythology--it definitely came into play (if only in that there was a book publisher with fairy in the name in one of the rows, and that I attended the YA fantasy panel). I asked a requisite mythology question at the fantasy panel, as well (because that's what I do), and I got some fun answers. All three writers on the panel (Melissa, Cassandra, and Libba) use real world mythology in what they're writing; Melissa commented that she grew up in a family where Celtic mythology was treated as the truth, which gives her a great background for the world she's created in Wicked Lovely. Cassandra spoke a bit about how, since she's working with angels and demons, incorporating world mythology into her novels makes them less religious--she's not dealing with Christian imagery in many cases, instead drawing on other mythological traditions. Libba talked about drawing on several different mythologies for inspiration (including Indian, as her main character is from India).
One of the things Cassandra mentioned was that her research into different mythologies helped her tap into the "universal"--getting at that deep core of things that are so often shared in different traditions. I like the idea that behind the trappings (she uses vampires, elves, and demons, and that's just in the excerpt that she read), which have in some cases become standard fantasy tropes, there's real meat behind it--and I'm looking forward to reading her City of Bones to find out what she's all about!
*For those who don't recognize these screen names,melissa_writing is Melissa Marr, author of Wicked Lovely; libba_bray is Libba Bray, author of A Great and Terrible Beauty and Rebel Angels; cassandraclare is Cassandra Clare, author of City of Bones; and sdn is Sharyn November, the Editorial Director of Firebird, the imprint responsible for reuniting me with the works of sartorias--also known as Sherwood Smith.
melissa_writing and libba_bray, hear cassandraclare read from her recent novel, and put good-sport sdn on the spot with a question.* I spoke with Gavin Grant of Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet, a literary speculative fiction periodical that (according to another attendee) is "smart but not pretentious," and chatted briefly with Heidi Macdonald of Publishers Weekly's "The Beat". Not only was it a great day to meet in person people I've admired both online and through their writing, but it was a fun chance to run into old friends. Jessica deCourcey Hines and I went to college together--we lived on the same floor of our dorm freshman year--and hadn't seen each other in easily ten years. But she recognized me right away and we had a chance to talk a bit about what we're both doing; she's got an agent shopping around a manuscript of hers right now, which I'm thrilled to hear. I always suspected she'd be one of the members of my class most likely to write the Great American Novel.
As for mythology--it definitely came into play (if only in that there was a book publisher with fairy in the name in one of the rows, and that I attended the YA fantasy panel). I asked a requisite mythology question at the fantasy panel, as well (because that's what I do), and I got some fun answers. All three writers on the panel (Melissa, Cassandra, and Libba) use real world mythology in what they're writing; Melissa commented that she grew up in a family where Celtic mythology was treated as the truth, which gives her a great background for the world she's created in Wicked Lovely. Cassandra spoke a bit about how, since she's working with angels and demons, incorporating world mythology into her novels makes them less religious--she's not dealing with Christian imagery in many cases, instead drawing on other mythological traditions. Libba talked about drawing on several different mythologies for inspiration (including Indian, as her main character is from India).
One of the things Cassandra mentioned was that her research into different mythologies helped her tap into the "universal"--getting at that deep core of things that are so often shared in different traditions. I like the idea that behind the trappings (she uses vampires, elves, and demons, and that's just in the excerpt that she read), which have in some cases become standard fantasy tropes, there's real meat behind it--and I'm looking forward to reading her City of Bones to find out what she's all about!
*For those who don't recognize these screen names,
melissa_writing is Melissa Marr, author of Wicked Lovely; libba_bray is Libba Bray, author of A Great and Terrible Beauty and Rebel Angels; cassandraclare is Cassandra Clare, author of City of Bones; and sdn is Sharyn November, the Editorial Director of Firebird, the imprint responsible for reuniting me with the works of sartorias--also known as Sherwood Smith.
