Barbara Hambly's fantasy novels, Stranger at the Wedding and Dragonsbane, have appeared in Starfire Reviews. Now I have the privilege to present the interview I've done with their excellent author!
Barbara Hambly has written a lot of novels in her time, including several in the Star Wars and Star Trek series. I happen to prefer her fantasy novels, though, and look forward to finally reading--in paperback, of course--her latest novel, Icefalcon's Quest.
I've read many of her other fantasy novels and enjoyed them; I hope to review them all sometime soon. I'm always watching for the works I haven't read, but again, the bookstores in Hawai'i don't exactly have the most complete inventories. I won't give up hope, though, so just keep watching Starfire Reviews to see what turns up!
The interview that follows comes from e-mail messages sent back and forth between myself and Ms. Hambly. I've filtered the interview down somewhat, but all with her approval. Enjoy!--XS
XS: I always wonder whether the author's name is a pseudonym or not. Is "Barbara Hambly" your real name?
BH: Yes, Barbara Hambly is my real name.
XS: Have you ever thought about using a pen name?
BH: I considered switching to a pen name when I started writing murder mysteries, simply because chain bookstores like Walden[book]s order by computer and often hire kids who know virtually nothing of the literary marketplace, and unless one's publisher is very careful to say, "Yes, this is the same Barbara Hambly who writes fantasies but do not shelve these mysteries with the fantasies!!!" one is going to flop as a mystery-writer because the mystery fans never look in the fantasy section.
XS: I can see where that would be a problem.
BH: Fortunately, my publishers are being very careful.
XS: Where is home for you? The bio sketches in your books say you live in Los Angeles, but where in L.A.?
BH: I don't live exactly in Los Angeles, and I'd rather not say more about it than that.
XS: Problems with fans?
BH: George (my beloved) and I have both had problems with fixated fans--mostly inappropriate letters ranging from "I've read your stuff and decided you are my soul-mate" to truly scary stuff--so we tend to be sort of careful about putting out addresses, locations, and phone numbers where people can get at them. Sorry.
XS: Oh, no, I understand your reasons. May I at least ask what sort of neighborhood it is and what kind of house you live in?
BH: I have a large, rather ramshackle house in a quiet neighborhood.
XS: It must be inspirational.
BH: Quiet is the most important thing to me. I also enjoy taking my bike down to the beach, or just hanging out on Venice Beach on warm summer mornings--you see everybody in the world there. I used to hike, though I don't get much chance for it lately--something I need to go back to. And lots of movies.
XS: What was your family life like as you were growing up?
BH: I have two parents, an older sister who's now a nurse, and a younger brother who's now a teacher. I'd say the main thing about growing up in a small town in southern California (we left San Diego when I was still a baby) was that it was boring. The thing I liked most, in retrospect, was the weather. It didn't snow and wasn't awful, except for the smog. I grew up before there were air pollution standards and the days when the local orange-growers would burn the pulp were awful.
XS: Sounds like Hawai'i when the Kona winds brought the scents of the fish and pineapple canneries home and when they bring the vog overhead. Oops! Sorry about that. Who was the biggest influence on your life as you grew up?
BH: I'd say it's a toss-up between my parnets--who are loving, kindly people--and my best friend in high school, who is still my best friend after 32 years.
XS: According to the bio sketch, you have a master's degree in medieval history. Does it help in your writing?
BH: Well, it taught me how to set up a non-industrial society convincingly: showed me how to do research, and the kind of things I need to look for. On a deeper level, I think the broader one's education, the better one's writing is apt to be, if you have the talent to be a writer in the first place. The more you read--not just science fiction or whatever--the better your "ear" gets, and the better your sense of rhythm and use of words. You get better at being able to tell good writing from bad.
XS: What are your views on education?
BH: My view is that most people's education isn't broad enough. People need to know a little bit about a lot of things--first, it gives them depth and makes them more interesting, to others and to themselves; second, a lot of people don't know what they want out of life, especially kids. If they haven't an opportunity to try things like music and art or auto shop or math, they may waste years before they find what makes them happy, or they may never find it...and people do a lot of damage when they're not happy.
XS: Looking at your resume, I'd say you know a lot about a lot of things. High school teacher, model, waitress, technical editor, professional graduate student, clerk, and karate instructor in addition to being a writer. What led you in all these different directions?
BH: The need to pay rent, mostly. I spent the early part of my life looking for a job that would let me write. I waitressed as a senior in high school, taught karate at the same time I worked as a teaching assistant at UC Riverside while getting my degree, clerked and modelled between that and getting my teaching credential, and then ended up as a tech editor in an aerospace plant, which paid about three times what I'd have gotten as a first-year teacher. And everything assists me in writing. The more you learn--the more experience you have--the better your writing is.
XS: I'll remember that. Are you a full-time writer now or do you have a job and do the writing on the side?
BH: I am a full-time writer.
XS: What is your family life like now?
BH: I live with George Alec Effinger, Hugo- and Nebula-Award winning writer of When Gravity Falls and other science fiction novels. We're getting married at the end of this year [1998]. He's chronically ill, and has his good days and his bad days.
XS: It must be difficult at times.
BH: It's stressful, but I'm learning to adjust. We also have two dogs and two cats.
XS: What is your greatest goal in life?
BH: To be a full-time writer--to make enough money at it that I won't have to worry about money ever again.
XS: What sort of awards and accomplishments have you acquired and/or achieved?
BH: I hold a black belt in karate, though owing to an old injury I don't train anymore. As you know, I have a Master's Degree in medieval history from the University of California, Riverside. I've gotten a couple of awards for books I've written--I don't remember which or what now, though. My greatest accomplishments, though, are that people mostly like my books, and that my friends like me.
XS: The bio sketch mentions a high-school semester in New South Wales, Australia. How did you like the time you spent there?
BH: I didn't like the six months I spent in Australia in 1967 because I was a teen-ager and determined to be unhappy, and I was. On later trips to Australia I've truly loved the country.
XS: Where else have you traveled?
BH: England, Italy, New Zealand--all over the United States. When I was writing Traveling with the Dead I visited Vienna and Istanbul, which is where the book takes place. Istanbul is one of the most wonderful places I've ever been.
XS: Wow. Are there any places you'd like to go that you haven't gotten to yet?
BH: My goal right now is to go back to Venice Italy, and I want to visit China, specifically the Forbidden City and the Ming Tombs.
XS: Those sound like truly interesting places to visit; maybe someday you'll have a chance to go there. Now, I know you've written fantasy and horror novels, and I'm also aware of your sci-fi ventures. Why do you like these genres?
BH: I've written in fantasy for twenty years now, and like writing about magic and how magic affects those who use it and those who have it. I tend to write horror as if it were fantasy--that is, staying away from plots that are simply body-count and "How do we get rid of this awful thing?" Everything I write usually has a puzzle or mystery element.
XS: Are there any other genres you'd like to explore?
BH: One day I'd like to write a straight historical romance. I've had plans for a western floating around in my mind for years. My beloved writes straight science fiction--or as straight as anything he writes can be, he's got a fairly bent outlook on the world. We intend to collaborate on a series of mysteries.
XS: I look forward to seeing them. Now, when is the easiest time for you to write and why?
BH: My best writing time is in the mornings. I'm most relaxed, and don't feel hurried by the pressures of the day.
XS: Is there a special place you like to write in?
BH: I can write under most circumstances, but I prefer to be in the comfort of my study. I can concentrate, it's very quiet, I know where all the reference books are, I can go get a cup of tea when I want one. But I've written portions of novels in coffee shops, on airplanes, in the Adelphi Hotel in Liverpool and crummy little pensiones in Istanbul. Once my mind goes to the place where the novel is, it's almsot like copying something that already exists. This, I think, is the greatest gift God gave me.
XS: I wish I could do that--write wherever I am. Sigh. I know writing requires research. Do you find it tedious?
BH: Research tedious? Never. I love research. I write historicals because for me, research is a form of time-travel. They're the excuse, the framework, to hang the research on. Research is the puzzle and the delight of my life. Even before I started writing historical murder mysteries, about every third fantasy was a historical: 1920s Hollywood, Nazi Germany, ancient Rome, Edwardian England and Europe. The only research I truly didn't like was the Nazi German stuff (for the Sun-Cross books). I learned stuff I wish I didn't know. But it was never tedious. I've got masses of information about places and periods I haven't written about yet, just waiting for me to come up with plots.
XS: Do you have any favorite authors that influenced the direction your writing interests went?
BH: The OZ books and Sherlock Holmes; fantasy and puzzles. I love Kipling. I love Georgette Heyer. I love Mary Renault, Dorothy Sayers, Josephine Tey, George MacDonald Fraser, Ernest Haycox, Manning Coles, John LeCarre. They've all influenced my style, taught me how to go about setting up a story.
XS: I feel sick. Except for Kipling, Renault, and LeCarre, I haven't heard of any of those authors. Woeful lapse on my part, I suppose. Okay, has there ever been anything you've regretted submitting to a magazine or publisher?
BH: I can't think of any.
XS: That was easy. How do you feel about creative writing classes?
BH: I'm not quite sure. The single CW class I took in college was an absolute waste of my time. Even at age eighteen, I remember sitting in the front row listening to this woman with a size-nine mouth and an ego to match blathering on about how to write short stories and thinking, "What have you published, lady? You show me some credentials and then maybe I'll listen." Maybe it was because the emphasis was on short stories, a form I've never mastered, never cared for, and don't read. But just because I never got any benefit from a class doesn't mean others won't, and in fact I think CW classes can be, and are, useful.
XS: Has writing become easier or more difficult since you started?
BH: Neither. It's all very much the same now as it was when I was eleven--or five. It's like turning on a tap.
XS: I wish it was so easy for me. Okay, what are the easiest and most difficult things about writing?
BH: I'd say right now that the most difficult thing is finding the time to do it. When you live with someone there are demands on your time--living with someone who is chronically ill doubles these. And, if I've been writing too long at a stretch and getting too tired to be making sense, it's sometimes hard to quit when I need to go take a walk.
XS: I think that's happened to me a couple of times, although it was on research papers. Now, before we start discussing one of the novels I reviewed, Stranger at the Wedding, I'd like to ask a couple of questions about some of your other works. How did you come to write the Star Wars novels?
BH: The short version is that I met Kevin Anderson at a convention and he had one slot left open in his Tales from the Mos Eisley Cantina anthology, and asked me if I'd do it. I said yes. Two days after I got home from the con my agent got a call from the folks at Bantam saying, "Say, would Barbara like to do a Star Wars Novel?" I leaped at the chance.
XS: Was it a difficult transition to go from fantasy to sci-fi?
BH: It would have been more difficult had Star Wars been "hard" SF since I don't know enough science to have a plot turn on a point of speculation about scientific theory, which is my definition of SF. But Star Wars has a good deal in common with fantasy.
XS: I have to agree with you there. Okay, on to Stranger at the Wedding. I liked this novel a lot, though I'm not sure why. Maybe because it's so different from your other fantasy novels. It seemed almost fairy tale-like. Hope that doesn't offend you.
BH: No, I have no bad reaction to the description of the book as "fairy tale." It does have a different feel than many of the others. Actually, I think of it more as a 1940s movie than as a fairy tale (starring Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn, in fact).
XS: What were the easiest and hardest parts about writing this novel?
BH: At this distance of time it's difficult to say what was the "easiest" and "hardest" parts about writing it.
XS: Sorry about that. Well then, the second to last scene--the end of Tibbeth of Hale--was chilling. Did you have any problems writing it--trouble getting to sleep after you wrote it, maybe?
BH: I didn't have trouble getting to sleep after writing about Tibbeth's destruction, although the scene itself came out of a deep emotional place. The whole story is about relationships and events that are close to me--the relationship between sisters, the emotional risks of doing things your family doesn't understand. In some ways the book is autobiographical insofar as my family, though very proud of me, is pretty clueless about what is involved, emotionally, in writing--as of course is anyone who doesn't do it.
XS: I suppose that makes Kyra Peldyrin "you," then. In her you've done an amazing job. Whatever possessed you to make her, ah, less than graceful? Of course, it pays off in the end since she gets her man, but I almost couldn't get through the book for laughing and rolling my eyes each time she tripped.
BH: I like Kyra. I modelled her on Katherine Hepburn; the clumsiness, and the bizarre taste in clothing, were things I could see her throwing into a movie, if they'd made this one back then.
XS: How do you make up your character's names? Kyra, of course, came over from the Windrose Chronicles, but how about "Blore Spenson" or "Esmin Earthwygg"?
BH: Acutally, I'd started writing Stranger at the Wedding as I was finishing up Dog Wizard [third book in the Windrose Chronicles--XS], so I could put Kyra in it as a continuity factor. I have a lot of fun with names and I can't say more than that: things just sound right, or they don't. That's one of the things that goes strictly by instinct.
XS: Was there a particular reason behind having Kyra fashioning her own dresses, or was this simply a way of distinguishing her from those around her?
BH: Kyra's always been a sort of a misfit. In a world where everyone wears pastels, she decks herself out in purple. I'm not sure why I made that choice, except that it fits with her character: a little harsh, a little abrasive, the kind of girl they'd have had a tough time finding a husband for.
XS: This novel is, as we agreed, a far cry from The Windrose Chronicles or The Darwath Trilogy. Assuming that you had a lot of time between those novels and this one, was it difficult for you to revisit/transfer from the one style of writing to the one used in Stranger at the Wedding?
BH: Each book I write has its own "voice." This one's is more distinctive than most: I wrote it as a sort of Jane Austen/Georgette Heyer comedy, a kind of lightweight Regency Romance--only, of course, I couldn't keep it from having a horrible dark core. Nearly everything I write has silliness mingled with horror; it's just a question of proportion. For me, the glass is neither half-full nor half-empty: it is always full, of a combination of air and water. The proportions change, that's all.
XS: Are you satisfied with the end result, or are there portions where you would gladly rewrite to better fit your ideal of this novel?
BH: I'm extremely satisfied with it; it looks and feels exactly as I had envisioned it--something that doesn't always happen.
XS: Do you have any plans on revisiting Kyra and Blore...or maybe Alix and Algeron, or even the town of Angelshand? Hessi Pinktrees sounds like a character with potential for a story of her own.
BH: I porbably won't do another novel strictly about Kyra and Blore, though they'll probably show up in another Windrose novel. Everybody I write about has their own story, their own life that extends beyond the edges of the novel. That's the thing I love about writing.
XS: Well, I hope you'll consider taking Alix, Algeron, or Hessie and go with them. So, what lies in store for you now?
BH: I've started on a series of historical murder mysteries which are being extremely well-received and well-reviewed, so I'll be alternating those with the fantasies. They take place in New Orleans in the 1830s, and the two that have appeared so far are called A Free Man of Color and Fever Season. I also just turned in the manuscript for a sequel to Dragonsbane, called Dragonshadow [now in hardcover--XS]. It's actually the first of three, of which I'm at work on the second now.
XS: I look forward to reading them. What advice would you offer to anyone thinking about becoming a writer?
BH: There's so much. Write from your heart. Make sure the details are right, and I include in that details of human behavior. Would people really do this? Say this? Finish your stories; don't let them just hang. Make sure your story has a beginning, a middle, and an end. Think about what is the story you're telling. Re-write: nothing is at its best in first draft. Get someone you trust to read it, and think about what they say.
XS: Excellent advice. Any parting comments?
BH: Only that I'm very pleased that people like my books. I hope to be able to keep up the good work.
XS: I'm sure you will!
Well, there you have it. I really enjoy reading Ms. Hambly's books, and I hope you'll visit them yourself. You can visit The Barbara Hambly Page for more information about her and the current status of her works. It's not a page done by the author, but it's still very informative...almost as though it was done by Ms. Hambly!
Comments? Suggestions? Just click here to send me e-mail.
Also, if this interview prompted you to read Stranger at the Wedding or some of Barbara Hambly's other works, then let me know. I appreciate knowing I made a difference in somebody's life.
Back Home Back to Starfire Reviews Back to Corridors of Communication
Get your own Free Home Page