A month and a half ago we reported that new author Sarah Rees Brennan had sold a fantasy trilogy to Simon & Schuster’s McElderry Books for a very nice advance. The first book is to be titled The Demon’s Lexicon. Now we have an interview with this young author.
SFScope: Can you tell us a little more about yourself? We know you’re 23, living in England, and moving back to Ireland, but who are you? How do you think of yourself? What got you into fantasy in the first place?
Brennan: I suppose who I am has a lot to do with why I’m into fantasy. I’m the kind of reader who gets asked to give up reading for Lent. My father read me Joyce in the womb, and though actually I think inflicting Ulysses on me may count as fetus abuse, that set me on the reading road early. I’ve been trying to write books since I was seven, but it was when I was twelve that fantasy grabbed me by the throat and never let go.
I found fantasy by going to the library, since my parents would’ve had to mortgage the house to keep me in books otherwise. I was outraged when I was confined to the children’s section, but it turned out to be the best thing that ever happened to me. I found Margaret Mahy’s The Changeover and Diana Wynne Jones’ The Lives of Christopher Chant and became an instant convert to fantasy. My parents could never understand why their little girl spent her school years scribbling about ghouls, but I think that fantasy can do everything that other fiction can do and then some. I’ll cannibalize some of Tolkien’s ideas and say that the difference to me seems like the difference between writing “Dear Diary, today there was a thunderstorm,” and “Dear Diary, Today the war hammer of the god rang throughout the skies. It was obvious that one of the children had to be sacrificed.” There’s so much scope to fantasy: it’s such an exciting genre to write in and read. I never looked back.
SFScope: I gather you’re a big name in the fanfic community, but for those of us who only know of its existence, could you tell us a little about what fanfic is, what got you interested in it, and what kept you writing so much of it? Also, do you think you’ll continue with it now that you’ve got a contract for your own original fiction?
And following that up: how will you feel if and when fanfic develops around your newly created world?
Brennan: Well, fanfiction. What it is, is playing with other authors’ worlds and characters because you love them and want to spend more time with them, and you have fun playing “what if this happened.” I started writing it in school, keeping a weather eye out for the teacher in maths class, and I was lucky enough to have a lot of people reading from the start. I think fanfiction’s a wonderful thing—having people willing to read your work and make you think about it encourages you to write more and to think more about what you write. I think it’s helped me become a better writer and it’s a wonderfully supportive community, but that said, I am planning to pull my fanfiction from the web and not to write anymore. Fanfiction is fun, but I always loved writing my own books more. It’s even more fun to have your own world and your own characters, and now that there’s a chance of people reading that, it’s all I want to do.
If anyone wrote fanfiction for my world I would be immensely flattered and pleased. I think it’s a tribute to a writer’s world and characters to have people wanting to spend more time in that world, and though I couldn’t read it, I would be thrilled to know it was out there.
SFScope: I gather you got a pretty big advance for the trilogy (for which, much congratulations). I assume it’s enough that you’ll be a full-time writer from now on. What were you planning to do with your life before the sale?
Brennan: Before I sold the book, I was the typical extremely impecunious 23-year-old grad student, book mad and wanting to get into publishing so I could be around books even more. Now that I’ve been offered this tremendous opportunity, I want to concentrate on my own writing. But I will have another job, if only to get me out of the house and occasionally make me brush my hair. Currently, I’m working in a library wearing glitter and fairy wings as I read The Spiderwick Chronicles to children intrigued by the crazy lady.
SFScope: When we first announced your sale, all we could say about your trilogy is “The first book will be titled The Demon’s Lexicon. The series, which sold at auction for a high six-figure price, is about ‘two brothers hunted throughout England by a powerful magician’s circle after their mother steals a charm and when the eldest is marked by a demon, the younger uses swords and dark arts in an effort to save him but unwittingly uncovers the darkest of secrets.'” That’s enough of a teaser, but can you tell us a little more about it? Enlarge the story a bit? Or do you, possibly, have an excerpt or sample available on your web site for our readers?
Brennan: I don’t yet have an excerpt of my book available on my website, but once I receive my both dreaded and longed-for editorial letter, and I know for sure that my hero Nick won’t be changed to a Nicola, I definitely plan to put up a sample chapter. For now, I’d love to tell you a little more about the story. It’s full of magic: there are magicians and necromancers and fortune tellers, but as the title indicates, the main focus is on demons. They’re not like Christian demons, but more based on Sumerian mythology, which said that demons were made of fire and humans of earth. I wanted to have creatures as intelligent as humans, but with completely different feelings and motivations, possibly not evil but so alien that they’re extremely dangerous. Another very strong focus of the trilogy is on family—a lot of young adult books focus on romantic love, and while that’s wonderful and I certainly do have romance, family is a pretty big part of any teenager’s life and one that I thought deserved further exploration. The Demon’s Lexicon explores how very different family members can be, the tension caused and the bonds formed by constantly living in danger, the way your family can betray you, and the way love can survive even through betrayal or death.
All this sounds very serious. Is it too much to say that I hope it’s funny, too?
SFScope: No, it isn’t too much. I’m looking forward to reading it. But finally, what’s next for you? I imagine finishing writing the trilogy is absolutely next, but beyond that, where do you see yourself going? More fantasy novels, different genres, shorter works? What’s going to keep your interest in the coming years?
Brennan: Finishing the trilogy is absolutely on my list of very next things to do, and I’m really excited to do it, but I have a lot more on the list as well. I just met my UK editor this week and I told her about several other projects I have in mind: one a Gothic rather than contemporary fantasy, one set in Ireland. I fear that when she realized how many things I was planning to throw at her she felt rather like the Lady of Shalott: the curse had come upon her, but she was very lovely and enthusiastic. Lately I’ve started writing short stories, too, though I’ve always been more of a novel girl. My first few attempts were absolutely woeful, but I was really happy when I recently sold a short story to an anthology called Touched. The story’s about lesbian dragons in New York, and even though the sale of Haworth Press has left the anthology in limbo (we’re waiting to hear back) it was my very first fantasy sale and I’m really excited to go on and write more short stories. Fantasy is my true love and I think always will be, but I’m not ruling out writing anything else. Mostly I just want to keep writing and learning to write better.
SFScope: And is there anything else you’d like to say to our readers who don’t yet know you?
Brennan: To readers who don’t know me: thank you very much for reading this, and I hope this will spark their interest in The Demon’s Lexicon—or at least not completely you them off…
And thank you very much, for the great questions and the opportunity to babble at you.