Self-proclaimed geek and first-time novelist Foz Meadows speaks to Kate O’Donnell about Solace and Grief, her young adult urban fantasy.
Solace and Grief, in spite of its gothic appearance and dramatic plot, is also a very funny story with witty characters. Was it hard to find a balance of light and dark?
Yes, at times. Whenever I’m writing a tense or emotional scene, it feels like there are three different writers in me vying for control-a dramatist longing for tragedy, a closet romantic, and a comedian who looks for the humour in everything. And I do mean that literally. When I was 13 or so, I took it into my head to give names, faces and distinct character attributes to three different parts of my personality, and 10 years later, it’s still hard to resist thinking of myself in those terms, especially when writing. In that sense, then, the balance of the story is a bit like the balance of my personality-skewed. I have to fight with myself on multiple fronts. At the same time, humour often creeps in unannounced, but in ways which, once I notice, feel completely natural. I’ve always had a healthy appreciation for irony and the absurd-the original Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy radio series is one of my favourite things in the entire universe-because life is so rarely a straight-up choice between laughter and seriousness. More often, the two are blended together; poignancy is a mix of different emotions, not an absolute state. Reality seldom misses an opportunity to tromp all over the drama of human existence with the Gumboots of Inopportune Timing, so why should fantasy be any different?
There are a lot of other vampire and supernatural stories out at the moment, were you conscious of that and did it change any of your plans?
I’m more conscious of it now that the book is about to come out, but at the time I started writing, which was back in 2007, I was quite oblivious. My then day-job involved a certain amount of downtime in front of a computer, and after a marathon rewatching of my favourite Buffy the Vampire Slayer episodes, the opening scene of Solace suddenly popped into my head. It wasn’t until I was more than halfway through and plotting the subsequent volumes that I noticed how popular urban fantasy in general and vampires in particular were becoming, but two years is a long time, and the genre has expanded enormously since then. I didn’t change anything because of that popularity, but I did avoid reading vampire stories until after the first draft was finished-just to keep my head clear.
On your blog you have written about the recent increase of proudly feminine fantasy books, usually a male-dominated area. Solace is a great female character– do you think this genre is any closer to achieving gender parity?
I think that depends on where in the genre you turn your focus, and from what angle. Certainly, when it comes to strong female authors and characters, fantasy has a wealth of both on offer, and has done for some time. Growing up, almost all my favourite fantasy authors were, and are, women. What’s new in this instance-or if not new, then certainly booming-is the extent to which a certain kind of fantasy story is being written with women as the intended audience, rather than for a mixed or primarily masculine market. Paranormal romance is the obvious example, and I think there’s an argument to be made that, as a predominantly feminine subgenre, it acts as a counterbalance to hard science-fiction, which has often been described as a more masculine arena. Beyond that, however, I think that fantasy as a whole is definitely an equal opportunities employer, and if any imbalance does remain, it’s not for lack of talented authors striving to address it.
What are you working on next?
I finished the first draft of the next Solace novel a month or so ago, which means it’s just about ripe for some serious editing. I haven’t begun the third volume yet, but I’ve got a folder of notes on how it all plays out, and I’m quite excited to put it into practice. In the interim, however, I’ve been ambushed by a new adult fantasy novel; it’s something of a murder mystery set in a semi-futuristic city of magic and strange technology. I’m a bit over halfway through the first instalment, and though I’m not planning a serial narrative arc, I’ve outlined some future stories featuring the same protagonists. There are also a few short pieces I’d like to get down, assuming I find the time!
This review from Australian Bookseller & Publisher magazine (March 2010, Vol 89, No. 6) is reproduced by kind permission of Thorpe-Bowker, a division of R R Bowker LLC. © Copyright 2009, Thorpe-Bowker.