Tag Archives: Death Most Definite

Meet Trent Jamieson …

I have been running a series of  interview with female fantasy writers to redress a perception I came across – that fantasy was a bit of a boy’s club. It really isn’t like that here in Australia. We have many wonderful fantasy writers who just happen to be female.

Today I’m interviewing Trent Jamieson because, for one thing he has a wonderful new book coming out. (Yay Trent!), and also I thought I’d ask him the same questions I’ve asked the female writers about fantasy writing and gender, to get his perspective as a male fantasy writer.

I’ve known Trent Jamieson since he was a fresh-faced aspiring writer coming to the VISION meetings (almost 15 years) and Trent has been a part of the ROR writing group for 8 years. He’s sold heaps of short stories, won or been a finalist in awards and now has a second series coming out.

Watch out for the give-away question at the end of the interview.

Q: I can remember dropping you at the ferry after one of our critique sessions, saying – One day The Roil will be published, Trent. It’s so creative and interesting. It just has to hit the right publisher at the right time. Now it is coming out through Angry Robot. I was thrilled when you asked me for a cover quote. The Roil can be described as Steampunk, but it is so much more, dystopian SF, Lovecraftian horror. How long has The Roil (The Nightbound Land duology) been in the making?

Ooh, I remember that, too! I’m not sure if I believed you at the time, but I’m so glad you were right. In fact, I never quite believe it until I know the book is in print – just got an email from my publisher to say that copies arrived at Angry Robot today – Yay!

The Nightbound Land’s been around in my head a very long time, at least ten years though there are elements going back to my early twenties, just after I graduated Uni. I’ve notes sketches, and bits and pieces in my earliest notebooks. I think this is the world that I’ve kept circling all my adult life, and I might come back to it once I’ve finished the next book (which is due in a couple of weeks, Arrrgh!). I’ve short stories planned, there’s a novella I want to do concerning a person that really only shows up for an instant in book one (and as a corpse, no less, but up until that point they had led a very exciting, if rather tragic, life), there’s poems too. This is the world I always come back to in my mind.

It’s dark and grim (and I’ve glad you’ve noticed the Lovecraftian elements – there’s a reason my blog is called Trentonomicon) – and nonsensical. But it’s also very much grounded in my experience of city spaces. My wife Diana says she can’t read the scenes in Mirrlees or Tate without thinking of Brisbane.

This is Trent’s cool new book trailer for The Roil .

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cd-GIecM1jQ]

Q: You’ve written a lot of short stories with an anthology Reserved for Travelling Shows and over 23 stories published individually. Your stories have been finalists in the Aurealis Awards four times and won twice (SF and YA, but also nominated in horror). Just as it is hard to pin down The Roil, it is hard to pin down your short stories. If you had to describe your genre as a writer, how would you do it? And, if that’s too hard, what are your favourite genres to write in?

I like to mess around in various genres. Believe it or not, my first published works were nonsense poems. But I don’t set out to write in a specific genre. Stories start as either a particular image, or a weird sentence or even a beat, I just follow the pulse to end.

I don’t know if I have a favourite genre, I like the grand epic gestures of Urban Fantasy, and the way it’s also curiously intimate.

Steampunk is just glorious, the machines, the clothes, the foggy streets (or in my case rain-drenched). I’m really itching to work on a sword and sorcery novel that has been sitting in my hard drive for years (I sold Death Most Definite, before I could get back to it).

I love genre fiction, but ultimately what makes a tale work is the author writing it not the appurtenances of genre, I love authors that are their own genre, I want to read a Tansy Rayner Roberts story or a Rowena Cory Daniels story or a Marianne de Pierres story or China Mieville or Michael Swanwick or Kim Westwood.

What I would love to be is an author that drags people with them whatever genre they write in (maybe one day, eh) though my sensibilities are deeply fantastical, so they know it’s always going to be a bit weird.

Q: You’ve tutored at Clarion South and the Queensland University of Technology. I’ve always enjoyed and appreciated your critiques at our ROR weekends. Do you have any tips for aspiring writers?

Honestly the most important thing is to read, and read lots. Everything you can get your hands on, poetry, fiction, non-fiction, swim in the words. You don’t learn to riff off words until you’ve heard a lot of tunes. Unless you’re some sort of genius, then you don’t need my advice anyway.

The other thing is to take a delight in it. Writing is play, writing fiction is play, if you’re not enjoying it there are far more lucrative careers than writing (pretty much anything). It’s hard work, hard, hard work, but it should sing for you, too.

Q: Your Death Works trilogy was published by Orbit. The first book, Definite Most Definite was nominated for both the horror and the fantasy section of the Aurealis Awards (again you defy genre). This trilogy combines horror with humour, zombies and death as a corporate business (not to mention a love story).

The trilogy is set in Brisbane, our home town. In an interview on Fangbooks you say: ‘Brisbane is very important to me. From the brown, and slightly ominous coils of the Brisbane River to the flashing transmitters atop Mt Coot-tha, and the knitting needle bunches of the Kurilpa Bridge Brisbane is full of stories (and the possibility of adventure, explosions and love).’ Did you come across any resistance to setting the trilogy in a little-known Australian capital city?

None whatsoever. No-one ever told me not to set it in Brisbane, it never came up. Orbit grabbed it and ran with it, and they’ve never been anything but supportive – maybe it helps that Bernadette Foley, my publisher is from Brisbane!

See Trent’s cool Death Most Definite book trailer.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQtI__Zc5bY]

Q: You’ve been doing a series of quirky and amusing videos. (See See Trent’s Book corners 1- 5 and Trent’s Book Corners 6- 10). What inspired you to start these?

Honestly … I discovered that I had a video camera in my computer and thought, why not? They’re really something I do as a bit of a hobby. I have a rule that they have be pretty rough, and daggy, so far I am in no danger of breaking that rule.

And, I thought, I can do this, whereas I could never see myself podcasting. Galactic Suburbia, the Writer and the Critic, Coode St Review, all of these are brilliant podcasts – that I love, and could never hope to replicate – I figured there was some room for silliness.

Q: By the end of August, you’ll hand in the second Nightbound Land book, Night’s Engines. What do you plan to write next?

Gah! I’ve a kid’s series called The Players that I wrote with an Arts Council Grant a few years back, I’d like to see if I can sell that. I’ve a Sword and Sorcery novel called Empire December that I would like to finally polish up and send out. I’ve a story about a girl that is carried by a storm to a carnival in a cherry orchard run by the devil – and he’s a slick old devil this one. And there’s a Space Opera novel I’ve been meaning to write, not to mention an Urban Fantasy series about a family in Logan City – the city on the southern edge of Brisbane. And there’s a vampire novel that I want to write based on my short story “Day Boy”.

You know how it is, the ideas never stop coming. It’s deciding which one grabs you the most at the time and running with it.

Q: I was prompted to start this series of interviews because there seems to be a perception in the US and the UK that fantasy is a bit of a boy’s club. Do you think there’s a difference in the way males and females write fantasy?

If I pick up a book without knowing the author’s gender I rarely guess correctly, and that’s usually only because the odds suggest I have to get it right some of the time! So, to me, no. Writing is about inhabiting other people’s heads. Good writers of either sex do this. I think there is a difference in the way that different people write fantasy in the politics, the concerns, the lyricism etc that they bring to their work, but gender isn’t as big a determinant of that. Though this is me coming at it as a reader, and I want to read (or at least try) EVERYTHING!

But what happens if you cut out one sex is that you miss out on fifty percent of the voices, fifty percent of the richness of the world. I don’t want to reduce my chance of being surprised and delighted by half.

Q: Following on from that, does the gender of the writer change your expectations when you pick up their book?

I expect to be entertained, challenged, shocked, and taken somewhere different when I pick up any book.

Margo Lanagan, Kate Griffin, Grace Dugan, Hope Mirrlees, Lucy Sussex, Kirsten Bishop, P.M. Newton, Steph Swainston, Krissy Kneen, Gail Carriger, Kate Elliott, and I could go on and on, all of these writers do that because, like any other writer I admire, they’re not me, I don’t know what they’re thinking or what game they’re playing with their stories, until I read them.

That’s the chief pleasure of reading any work of fiction, you’re reading someone else’s imagination, and mixing it with your own to form a cool sort of imaginative story stew. What an amazing thing that is.

Q: And here’s the fun question. If you could book a trip on a time machine, where and when would you go, and why?

I think it would be to the beginning of the universe. If you could somehow exist and watch the laws of physics coming into play, watch something become, well, something when before there wasn’t anything, how wonderful that would be!

Either that or I’d love to hang out with a T-rex or two.

Give-away Question:

What steampunk technology would you used to travel around the world?

Follow Trent on Twitter:  @trentonomicon

See Trent’s Blog.

Find Trent on GoodReads.

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Filed under Australian Writers, Book Giveaway, Book trailers, creativity, Dark Urban Fantasy, Fantasy books, Fun Stuff, Genre, Nourish the Writer, Promoting Friend's Books, The Writing Fraternity, Writing craft

Ripping Reads …

A couple of weeks ago my writing group did really well at the Aurealis Awards. I thought I might do a round-up of their books, so if you’re looking for a ripping read like Richard is, you’ll be able to find it.

So … Starting with Trent Jamieson. Trent’s Death Works trilogy is set in Brisbane (yay!) and it’s really quirky. It starts with Steve sitting in the food court in the city when a dead girl saves his life. Steve works for corporate death, helping souls into the afterlife and there’s a take-over bid. Suddenly he’s on the run with the dead girl …   Book one was a finalist in both the horror and the fantasy section of the Aurealis Awards.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And coming out next year is Trent’s new series The Roil. Very dark and full of daring do!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There’s Tansy Rayner Roberts’ Creature Court series. The first book of this series was a finalist in the fantasy section of Aurealis Award and won this section. This series combines a threatened city, with powerful shapeshifters and a dressmaker who suddenly finds herself caught up in a battle to save her home.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Marianne has been really busy. If you like Janet Evanovich’s Stepanie Plum books you’ll love her Tara Sharp series. Book one won the Davitt Award for female mystery writers. There’s just a touch of paranormal as the main character has the ability to read body language.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then there’s her new YA series. Dark, sensual and exciting. I like reading YA because the focus is on the protagonist and you get straight into the story.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And don’t forget her two SF series. The rollercoaster ride of the Parrish books. (Aurealis Award finalists)

 

 

 

 

 

And the slightly more cereberal but just as addictive Sentient of Orien series. (Aurealis Award finalists and book four won the award)

 

 

 

 

Then we have Richard, who’s been having heaps of success with his quirky steam punk series. Worldshaker has just won two awards in France. It gives him an excuse to dress up in waistcoats and top hats!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And there’s Margo’s latest book Tender Morsels. I’ve  lost track of the number of awards Margo has won for her writing. This book should come with a warning – disturbing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you like time travel, there’s Maxine McArthur’s series and her robot mystery nove, Less than Human. (Once again, finalists and winners of the Aurealis Awards).

 

 

 

 

 

 

With so many good books to read, it’s hard to know where to start!

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Congratulations to the ROR Writers!

Over at the ROR blog I’ve done a post about the Aurealis Awards. Four wins for the ROR team!

Congratulations to all the writers who made the final lists and to the winners.

Now I’m going to give Trent Jamieson’s book a plug because his book was shortlisted for both the horror and the fantasy novel sections of the Aurealis Awards and didn’t win either, but it’s a great read!


Try it if you like quirky Dark Urban Fantasy.

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Drop by and say Hi

On Saturday the 28th of August, I’m going to be at Logan North Library so drop by and say Hi.

I’ll be with the romantic by cynical Trent Jamieson, author of Death Most Definite, the pocket rocket Kylie Chan, author of the Dark Heaven series, the lovely Louise Cusack author and mentor, and Anthony Puttee author of the Johnny Marsh books.

We’ll be talking about promoting your books and this is all part of Logan North Library’s month of Speculative Fiction. So you are sure to see Darth Vader and a Storm Trouper or two!

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Friday the 13th – perfect date to launch Trent’s book

Here we are at Trent’s book launch. That’s Marianne de Pierres on the left, Trent with his books, then I’m behind him in the pink beret (was having a bad hair day, the curls would not behave) and Kylie Chan.

It was a great evening over at Avid Reader in West End. The previous two days we’d have pouring rain then gale force winds. Everything settled down so the garden terrace was still and the night was clear. There was standing room only as Trent’s friends and family came to support him. Marianne and I have known Trent for fifteen years since the Vision Writers group started and he’s been part of ROR for the last 9.

Books and writers aren’t made over night. You put in a long apprenticeship and then once you are published the work gets harder!

Feeling very proud and happy for Trent.

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Celebrating Friends’ books

Today I’m celebrating the launch of Trent Jamieson’s book Death Most Definite, published by Orbit, part of the Death Works trilogy.

Here is the trailer.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQtI__Zc5bY]

Tren’t s book is set in Brisbane with a quirky hero and an off beat premise. It’s a refreshing take on Dark Urban Fantasy.

Go Trent!

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Go Trent!

My good friend Trent Jamieson has been interviewed over at The Australian Literature Review.

He talks about how he writes:

‘Well, I’m not much of a planner, so first drafts are generally me trying things out and trying to make sense of stuff. Most of this book was written at the Toowong Library (in the local history section) in longhand. I’d walk down there every weekday, that I wasn’t working, listening to the same music to get me in the right frame of mind (mainly, for the first book Okkervil River, Gotye, and Spoon) and write until I’d filled about eight pages or so of my notebook. Then I’d go home and type them into my computer.’

Having read Trent’s book in its final form before it went off to the publisher (and loving it then) I’m really looking forward to getting a copy of it when it released.

And over at the Galaxy blog, Trent has done a guest post on his new series and writing in general.

For more on Trent and his weird and wondferful world view, drop by his blog.

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More Cross Pollination

Having offered to do a bookplate for Tansy, I had to offer to do a book plate for Trent.

Death most Definite’  is the first of Trent Jamieson’s three books to be published by Orbit in the Death Works series.  Like Tansy’s series, I feel particularly proud of book one because we critiqued the manuscript at the last ROR. Meanwhile, Trent’s editor was taking it to an acquisitions meeting to see if Orbit would buy it. Everytime Trent’s mobile rang we thought it might be his editor reporting in. So you can imagine how exciting that was.

Trent’s series is also urban fantasy but very different from Tansy’s. Set in a Brisbane and south East Queensland, much like the one we know, only Death is a business and, what with corporate take overs and mergers, it can be dangerous. Steve is just a lowly employee, whose job it is to help the recently departed through to the after life, when he gets involved in a take over.

I have to admire the way Trent handles drama, death and danger with his trademark certain dry  humour. Seems like everyone is writing DUF ( Dark Urban Fantasy). It’s accessible. It’s fun.

I can recommend both Trent and Tansy’s books. What have you read in this genre recently that you’d recommend?

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