Steven Harper Piziks

BONE WAR is done.

Sure, there will be the editorial rewrite and the copyedit and the page proofs, but the hard part is done.  This means the TRILOGY is done.  Whoa.  It's been a ride.

Nearly twenty-five years ago, I read a book about Norse trolls and the splinters in their eyes that kept them from seeing truth.  Moments later, I conceived Trollboy, who was half human and half troll.  His splinters had been knocked out, so he could always see the truth, even when it hurt.

I wrote a short story about Trollboy, but couldn't sell it to any of the print magazines.  A few years later, I sold it to an ezine that, alas, no longer exists.  I put the story in my PUBLISHED file.  But I remembered Trollboy and his tribulations.  His story wasn't complete.

And then a few years ago, I was meeting with my editor Anne Sowards at a convention.  The Clockwork Empire was drawing to a close, and she wanted to know what I had coming up next.  I pitched several ideas at her, but she liked none of them, even though all of them had female protagonists.  "You know what I'd like to see?" she said. "Some boy-centered fantasy."  So I pitched Trollboy at her.  She liked it quite a lot.

So Trollboy--Danr--got his own set of novels at last.

Along the way, we met Aisa, who started off in my head as a lone figure wrapped in a cloak with her face hidden behind a fluttering ragged scarf.  She watched Danr from a distance.  I needed to know more about her. Who was she? Why did she stay wrapped up?  What was her relationship with Danr?  IRON AXE spent considerable time exploring this.

And there was Talfi, the third member of the triad.  In Norse mythology, I've always liked Talfi (Tialfi, Tjalfi), the mortal boy who can run like the wind and who gets tricked into becoming Thor's servant.  Only two stories about him survive, and I wanted to play with the character.  What would it be like to become immortal?  I had my own take on it, of course.

My original story idea underwent some huge changes.  Initially, I had it in mind that the characters would climb Ashkame, the World Tree, and visit a number of different worlds, escape dreadful monsters and fight giants.  But as I put the synopsis together, I realized that this would disconnect the characters from the mortal world, the very place they were trying to save.  So I put them back on Erda, which turned out to be much better.

Most of my original story trappings disappeared.  I was planning to have shy Aisa drink the mead of poetry and become a great bard, but Aisa turned out brash and sarcastic instead of shy, so that plot vanished.  Kalessa, the orcish princess who wanted to be remembered, showed up and was supposed to be around for only one book, but was too interesting to abandon, so she played an important role in successive books.  Talfi, a major surprise, fell in love with Ranadar, the elven prince.  And Danr and Aisa both wove themselves into the very fabric of the universe itself.  Their ultimate fate in BONE WAR wasn't something I had in mind when I started, but it was the only possible resolution.  (No, it isn't a sad one--I don't write tragedy.)

And now their story is concluded.  It feels odd, knowing it's over.  I've lived with them for over three years, and now our relationship is drawing to a close. But that's the nature of novels.

By now, most everyone has heard of the attempt from Brad Torgeson, Vox Dei, and their zombie slaves to take over the Hugo Awards.  The reason for this is because, they say, science fiction and fantasy have become too liberal. We aren't writing about good old fashioned space ships and aliens or barbarians with axes; we're taking liberal stances on issues like feminism and gay rights.  How?  Apparently by creating female characters who act like actual people instead of door mats or lottery prizes and by actually including LGBT characters in the books.

This is what Torgeson wrote:

A few decades ago, if you saw a lovely spaceship on a book cover, with a gorgeous planet in the background, you could be pretty sure you were going to get a rousing space adventure featuring starships and distant, amazing worlds. If you saw a barbarian swinging an axe? You were going to get a rousing fantasy epic with broad-chested heroes who slay monsters, and run off with beautiful women. Battle-armored interstellar jump troops shooting up alien invaders? Yup. A gritty military SF war story, where the humans defeat the odds and save the Earth. And so on, and so forth.

These days, you can’t be sure.

The book has a spaceship on the cover, but is it really going to be a story about space exploration and pioneering derring-do? Or is the story merely about racial prejudice and exploitation, with interplanetary or interstellar trappings?

There’s a sword-swinger on the cover, but is it really about knights battling dragons? Or are the dragons suddenly the good guys, and the sword-swingers are the oppressive colonizers of Dragon Land?

A planet, framed by a galactic backdrop. Could it be an actual bona fide space opera? Heroes and princesses and laser blasters? No, wait. It’s about sexism and the oppression of women.

Finally, a book with a painting of a person wearing a mechanized suit of armor! Holding a rifle! War story ahoy! Nope, wait. It’s actually about gay and transgender issues.

Or it could be about the evils of capitalism and the despotism of the wealthy.

Do you see what I am trying to say here?

I do, Brad. You're trying to say that you're stuck in a distant past, that literature and audiences have moved ahead without you, that modern audiences want something with depth and power, while you want something on the level of the first season of Scooby Doo.

I've been accused of this myself, I suppose.  At least one reviewer wrote of IRON AXE that he loved the book until "the gay character" shows up and the book suddenly becomes "political."

So a book about a young man who fights against being labeled an outcast and who tries to make the world a better place for all people suddenly becomes political ONLY  when a gay character arrives on the scene.  Huh.

Anyway, Torgeson, Dei, and their zombies have managed to bung up the Hugo ballot, and now they're saying that if the other Hugo voters band together and force a "no award," they'll destroy the Hugos forever.

I'm laughing at them.  Their threats sounds like bad comic book writing for a cheesy super-villain.  "Bow down to the power of Vox Dei, WorldCon, or the zombie horde will destroy your precious Hugo once and for all! Mwah ha ha ha!"

Geez, dude. I'm really sorry about the size of your penis.

Here's the thing: Torgeson and Dei are doomed to failure.  Sure, they've messed up the award this year, and that really, really sucks for the people who are legitimately on the ballot and those who SHOULD have been on the ballot but got bumped off it.  But past this?  Dei and Torgeson are operating with manufactured outrage, a fake anger.  It's really hard to keep that kind of momentum going, especially when there's a full year break.  It'll die down, and these two will fade into obscurity.

And that's really their greatest fear, isn't it?

My fantasy novel Iron Axe is set on another world, and it occurred to me that it might be helpful to some readers if it had a map at the front.  I know some people rail against maps, but others like them quite a lot.  I have one for the continent--I had to see how these countries were placed, and geography has its own oar to row in political events.  So I emailed Ye Eddetor to ask if we should include it in the book.

She basically said, "Maybe."  It would depend on a number of factors, including money.  Could I send it to her?

Oops.  The map I had was really rough and not for public eyes.  Some things had changed on it, and I knew if I just sent it to her with a "Some things have changed" note, there was a good chance the mistaken map would end up at the art department anyway and the mistakes would appear in the final version.

So I had to actually redraw the map.  This actually turned out to be a fairly pleasant couple of hours.  I'm no artist or cartographer, but map drawing is kind of fun.  I firmed up a few bits, made some changes, and even colored it.  Ta da!  I tried to scan it with the scanner at work, but it only did black and white, so I was forced to use the scanning program in my cell phone.  This produced an image that was not only color, but superior to the work image in general.  Go figure.

I sent this to Ye Eddetor.  Now we'll see what happens.  If it's included, it'll be the first time I'll have a map in one of my books.  And if it doesn't, I'll just post it on my web page as bonus content.  :)

Today in the mail I got the next issue of F&SF.  In it is a glowing review by Charles deLint of WRITING THE PARANORMAL NOVEL, along with Esther Friesner's lead story "Rutger and Baby Do Jotunheim."  Can the day get any better?

I have a new story out!

On Tuesday, March 16, Book View Café will release the latest edition of their ebook anthologies. DRAGON LORDS and WARRIOR WOMEN (Ed: Phyllis Irene Radford; illust: Ursula K. Le Guin) is a collection of fantasy stories written by group members. Contributors include, Deborah J. Ross, Katharine Kerr, Sherwood Smith, Pati Nagle, Steven Harper (me!), Vonda N. McIntyre, Jennifer Stevenson, Brenda W. Clough, Judith Tarr, Chris Dolley, Madeleine Robins, Ursula K. Le Guin, Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff, Sarah Zettel, Irene Radford, Nancy Jane Moore, Amy Sterling Casil, and Katharine Eliska Kimbriel.

My story, "The Merrow," is an adaptation of an old Irish folk tale that I've long loved and wanted something to do with.  I sold the story a couple years ago to a magazine that folded before the first issue came out, so I'm happy to find a home for it here.

To celebrate the release, DRAGON LORDS contributors will host a chat at http://tinychat.com/bookviewcafe on Tuesday, March 16, 8:00-11:00pm EDT. During the chat a drawing for a free copy of the ebook will be held.

For a limited time Nagle’s story in the collection, KIND HUNTER, will be posted for free on the front page of the website: http://www.bookviewcafe.com.