Today Belinda Mellor is going to tell us about being a fantasy author. Thanks for visiting, Belinda.
How
did you choose the genre you write in? Or did it choose you? Tell us why you
love writing in whatever genre you consider your favorite.
I
write myth- and folklore-inspired fantasy. I have always been fascinated by ‘story’
and story-telling: family stories, Bible stories, myths, legends, fairy tales.
I was a voracious reader as a child, but C.S. Lewis’s Narnia stories were my
absolute favourites and the ones I read every single year. The first school
prize I received – for ‘creative expression’ was a hardback copy of The Snow
Queen. It is still one of my most prized possessions. I was six. At age ten I
won J.R.R. Tolkien’s ‘The Adventures of Tom Bombadil’ as an English prize. That
was my introduction to Tolkien. Of course, that book is illustrated by Pauline
Barnes, just as the Narnia stories are, so the connection made it very special
to me. Learning my favourite authors had a fascination with mythology made me
interested, so, as a teen I was reading Homer’s Illiad and Oddysey. The
importance of mythology to humanity inspired me to study theology at university
– I attended Bristol in the UK. Writing fantasy that explores human nature,
relationships, life, death and all the big questions, seems natural to me.
What
does literary success look like to you?
Initial
success would include: invitations to talk at writing festivals; a decent
payout from the NZ library fund; finding my books in bookshops outside of New
Zealand.
‘Real’
success might include having a book on a national school curriculum (any
nation!) – even though I mainly write adult fiction it is suitable for any age,
so I’d really love that; having a respected artist (or two) illustrate my work,
perhaps for a calendar, would be wonderful; a radio serialisation wouldn’t go
amiss either.
Are
you a full-out plotter? Are you a "let's see what happens" pantser?
Or do you think you fall somewhere in between?
I
daydream all my stories before I begin writing (before I fall asleep, or in the
bath, or while I’m driving) but, after that, anything can happen. I do tend to
know where they are headed and what matters before I begin, but I rarely plot.
Having said that, I attended a writers’ retreat last year and did a full-scale
plot of a YA story that had gone astray. It had been sitting in a drawer since
the Millennium because I had literally ‘lost the plot’! Knowing exactly
what I was doing was really helpful in that instance.
Did
you ever write a novel with a message to the readers, or at least, a message
you hope your readers garnered from it? What was the book, and what was the
message. Why did you want to express it?
My
two novels: Silvana - the Greening and Silvana - the Turning have a very
definite message: humans who love, respect and cooperate with nature and the
natural world, will reap benefits. Those who treat the environment as a
commodity to be exploited will suffer and make others and future generations
suffer too. I hope that by making the stories beautiful, I can show people how
beautiful the natural world is. If even one person looks at a tree with new
eyes as a result of reading my books it will have been worth writing them.
How
does it make you feel when people who have read your books talk to you about
them? Are you self-conscious, or does it inspire you?
I
LOVE hearing from people who enjoyed my work or were moved by it. The best
times are when other creative people are inspired to write poetry or make art
because of my writing, and I have been fortunate that that has happened several
times. But I can feel a little self-conscious. On the other hand, there’s
nothing I like better than to discuss my writing with someone who is really
interested so it’s worth the initial discomfort!
What
did you edit OUT of your most recent book (scene/character/etc)? Why?
I wrote several thousand words of the backstory of the partner
of a relatively minor character. Really, all the book needed was the fact that
he had a wife, and that she was rather too old to start having children. But I
do love what I wrote, so I suspect a novella might feature in the
not-too-distant future. Fennua is a complex and fascinating character – a
contented farmer who becomes a reluctant queen – and knowing her now as I do,
she is much more real in the novel than she would have been if I had just
written her in without knowing her well. Her story opens with her plucking a
chicken (something I am not fond of doing) – I don’t even know where it all
came from.
What
have you never written about, but want to some day?
Not
so much a subject I’d like to ‘write about’, but a style: but I rather fancy
having a go at a ‘who-done-it’ or a thriller. I think because it would mean
learning new writing techniques and skills, which would be fun and very
satisfying. Of course, it might be a cross-over: I did have an idea that
involved gnomes, a circus, and also crimes that needed to be solved! A
subterannean, albino Miss Marple if I recall correctly.
Did
you write stories or make up stories as a child? Do you remember what any of
them were about?
Yes,
I can’t remember when I didn’t write. The Adventures of Bonny Bunny was
my first ‘book’. I must have been about seven. It was written in pencil in an
exercise book, and illustrated too! Bonny Bunny foiled a burglary, if I
remember rightly. That was followed by ‘Minimus Goes To The Moon’. Minimus was
a mouse (you can see a pattern with the names, I suspect). MGTTM was a chapter
book. I was very proud of that. So, talking animals dressed like people were my
thing. I loved my cuddly toys, and disliked dolls, so that probably accounts
for why I wrote about animals.
Do
you have a favorite writing related quote?
‘Every
story is true – some of them actually happened.’
The right setting is critical for a
story to work. Have any of your books started out in one setting and ended up
in another? What changes did you make and what made them necessary?
As for my big series (Galdorheim), Kat changed her name a
couple of times. Katya, Katrina, maybe another. Anyway, at a writers’ workshop,
an “agent” read a couple of pages of the first chapter and said something like,
“The main character has a dull name while her brother is named Rune. That
doesn’t make sense.” My answer was only in my mind as I said, “Thank you.” In
my head, I was saying, “Look, you stupid twat, of course her name is mundane.
Didn’t you even get that she’s a klutzy witch with bullying problems at school
and part of that is her heritage?” And so on. The point I made with the mundane
name is that she was different from the other witches. Duh. I wouldn’t have
wanted that agent even if she was interested. Anyway, I changed the Kat’s name
again, then went back to Katrina, and mostly referred to as Kat. I might have
selected something different, but the name Katrina fit. People can read the
series to figure out why Rune has a cool name, but his sister does not.
An Example:
Marva was born in Eugene, Oregon and after a few years
wandering, has return to her hometown. She graduated from the University of
Oregon with a degree in Technical Communications. She spent the next umpteen
years working as a technical writer and programmer/analyst. In 2005, she gave
up all that glamour for the solitary life of a fiction writer.
Spirit Stealer: Ghosts in the Library
Fury's family leave the city for a six month visit to rural New Zealand.
They stay in an old house belonging to her mother's family, but who is
the ghostly figure in a hidden attic room and why is Fury the only one
who can see her? She learns the ghost is the spirit of the original
owner who has been trapped in the room for one hundred years.
On holiday in Nelson, New Zealand, Fury meets Eion who offers to teach
her to paddle board. Immediately attracted to him, she agrees. After
basic instruction, he takes her out to Skull Island, a creepy looking
rock some distance from the beach. No one has ever discovered a way up
to the caves which look like eyes, but Fury finds a secret entrance and
convinces Eion they should investigate. Their excitement rises as they
discover tunnels and caves hidden beneath the ground, but neither is
prepared for the arrival of ghostly pirates bringing their treasure
chests to bury in one of the underground caves.
Ghost Bus: Mystery of the Phantom Bus
