Loading ...Interview, Chat and Contest with Author Mike Carey
A big welcome to our readers today! Be sure to read to the end of the interview to find out how to WIN the fabulous prizes being offered up.
PLEASE NOTE: This is not a fixed time event, the post just goes live at 10:30 am CDT. You can stop by any time during the day or evening and leave your questions and chat.
PLEASE KEEP SPOILERS TO A MINIMUM. Not all of the readers today have read Mike’s books.
Interview:
Hi Mike!
Welcome to Bitten by Books, we are excited to have you here today!
I would like to thank you taking the time to join us for the question and answer session with our readers. It has been very interesting to get to know more about you and what makes you tick as a writer! Readers, if you haven’t done so already please stop by and get your copy of Mike’s newest book release Dead Men’s Boots
BBB: What are the most challenging and the most rewarding aspects of writing?
MC: The most rewarding thing is seeing the initial concept take shape and turn into the finished story. It’s like embryogenesis: you have this germ of an idea that’s almost too small to see, and it grows inexplicably and wonderfully into something that’s out there in the world bumping into other people. The biggest challenge is making sure that it’s born hale and hearty, and not some monstrous mutant thing with forty-seven tentacles. There’s a gestation process for any story, and it’s tempting to truncate it and get stuck straight into writing: but if you short-circuit the planning, you can find that really major things fail to cohere and come right.
BBB: Do you consider your writing paranormal mystery or urban fantasy and do you think it is important to distinguish between the two?
MC: I tend to think of genre as something that’s primarily important for marketing. The labels come from outside, and they never entirely describe what’s there in the text. They’re like the pictures on the side of the box when you buy a ready meal - the ones that are labeled “serving suggestion”. Urban fantasy is an interesting label, in that it sets itself up in opposition to the heroic fantasy genre that was spun out of Tolkien’s and Lewis’s and maybe Dunsany’s work. If it means anything, I guess it means fantasy set in the real world, as opposed to fantasy set in mythical and mostly pseudo-medieval realms. How it’s come from that to be a coded way of saying “hot vampire action” is kind of puzzling.
If anyone asks, I say that Castor is supernatural crime thriller. That seems to fit the bill, although it’s hard to squeeze onto the bottom right corner of a book jacket.
BBB: How did the idea for your Felix Castor series come to you?
MC: There were two epiphanies, really - a small one and a big one. The first, and smaller, was about Castor himself. I just had this idea of turning Philip Marlowe into an exorcist - of having an exorcist hero who at the same time is sort of a Chanderian private eye who wears a trench coat and walks the mean streets. That immediately suggested a whole lot of possibilities for story structures. Then I started to think about the supernatural fauna, if I can put it that way. Did I want to have werewolves in the books? Zombies? Vampires? Demons? And it suddenly occurred to me that instead of having half a dozen undead tribes with their own etiology and identities, you could explain all these phenomena by means of a single mechanism - which is to say ghosts. A zombie is a ghost animating its own corpse, or in some cases somebody else’s corpse. A werewolf is a ghost that’s invaded an animal body and redecorated, and so on. Even demons, ultimately, are part of the same spiritual ecosystem. It seemed like a cool starting point for a set of stories.
BBB: What is the most ridiculous thing that you have thought about doing to any of your characters?
MC: Probably turning a teenaged schoolgirl into God, which was what we ended up doing in Lucifer. It helped that the character in question - Elaine Belloc - was based on my own daughter. I knew she was up to the job.
If you mean something I thought about and didn’t do, then turning Castor and Juliet into lovers. Juliet is a succubus: she devours men’s souls, using lust as a sort of digestive enzyme. As Castor puts it in Vicious Circle, if they ever did have sex, his soul would be the cigarette afterward. But nonetheless, that was part of the original plan. It was only in the course of writing the second novel that I realised how crazy it was - and pursued the logic to where it had to go.
BBB: If you had Felix’s exorcist powers, what would you change in the world?
MC: Couldn’t happen - I’m tone deaf! I like to think if I did have those powers, I’d be as reluctant to use them as Castor is himself. But I’d certainly want to cast out the spirits of hypocrisy and greed from the British parliament, and that would probably be a job for life right there.
BBB: How much research do you do for your books? How much of it actually gets used in the finished book?
MC: If I’m honest, I do enough research to get by. I want the real world settings to be and feel authentic, so I do a lot of research on locations. The magical stuff is almost entirely made up, as opposed to being based on actual magical traditions and disciplines. Any historical references are typically a mixture of the two: they’re based on reality, but with a little twist here and there because this is a novel rather than a treatise. The people trafficking in The Devil You Know, the gangster references in Dead Men’s Boots
BBB: How do you keep track of your world building?
MC: Without too much difficulty, so far. It’s a big world, but it’s bounded. The characters who recur, like Rafi, Gwillam, Jenna-Jane Mulbridge, are very clear in my head. The incidental stuff I occasionally have to check. Like, what was the name of that journo Castor met in Alabama in Dead Men’s Boots
BBB: How do you switch gears when writing your Felix series and your X-Men stories?
MC: It’s tough. I have to build in airlocks of various kinds. I try to set aside whole days for each project, rather than trying to mix and match in the same day. And inevitably, I find it takes time when I’ve been writing one book to re-immerse myself in the world of another. I start off by re-reading the last chapter or issue I wrote, revisiting the plan, orienting myself in what’s already happened and what has to happen next. The upside is that if you come back to any story after a gap, you see it with fresh eyes and get new ideas. The downside is that you can’t rush it: it takes time to get your head into the space it needs to be in.
BBB: What do you feel are the benefits of the new electronic readers such as Kindle 2 or Sony Digital Book Reader
MC: The benefits are obvious, I would have thought. Fewer forests chopped down, more oxygen, less CO2, that kind of thing. But making Kindles is an industrial process, so I presume there are all the usual environmental by-products from that. I don’t know if anyone has done the math. For me, e-reading is a compromise: I’d always rather have a book, or a comic, in my hand, so that other senses besides sight come into play. I like the smell of a book, and I like books as physical objects. But living in a house that’s full of books to the point where it’s hard to find room to put the people, I can reluctantly admit that the arguments for e-readers is strong.
BBB: What impact do electronic readers create on the bottom line for authors in the end? Do you feel they have a negative impact or positive, or no impact at all that you can see?
MC: They’re important for publishers, in terms of opening up new markets. And they’re empowering to authors in that they make print-on-demand an easy and viable option. That side of the digital revolution is very cool, I think, and unambiguously good. If you can’t find a publisher who believes in your work, you can self-publish now without having to take out a second mortgage on your house. For the bulk of people working in traditional print media, though, I can’t see it having a huge impact.
BBB: How many more books do you have planned for the Felix Castor series? What other projects are you currently working on?
MC: There’s an arc in the Castor books as a whole, which gets its pay-off in the sixth book. That wouldn’t necessarily be the final book, but I have to write the sixth book in order for everything to fall into place and all the reveals to play out. After that, we’re talking about the possibility of a Juliet or Nicky Heath novel, to change the pace and let the changes in Castor’s life bed in. We’ll have to see: it depends on a lot of things.
Apart from that, I’m working on a fantasy novel which I’m co-writing with my wife, Linda, and our daughter, Louise. I’m still writing the X-Men for Marvel and The Unwritten for DC Vertigo; finishing off a comic book adaptation of the Orson Scott Card novel, Ender’s Shadow, and writing a Human Torch miniseries. I’m working on a movie screenplay - Trinity - for UK producer Slingshot, and writing a radio play - only the second I’ve ever written - for BBC 7’s sci-fi series, Planet B. At any one time, I seem to have a crazy number of projects on the go, but somehow they remain just on the right side of manageable. It’s harder to slow down than it is to stop.
BBB: Can you tell us about the Felix Castor series and the general storyline that drives it?
MC: Castor is an exorcist, living in a London that’s seen a huge upsurge in hauntings and supernatural activity. He does it for the money, and the mechanism he uses is a tin whistle: every exorcist has his own unique approach to the job, and this happens to be Castor’s: he hears ghosts as music, plays the music back in order to bind them, and then when he stops playing they disappear. Usually. But Castor can’t keep his nose out of other people’s business: in most of the books, an exorcism gig will lead him into investigations of other kinds, into murders and mysteries only tangentially connected to the haunting. And more and more, he’s drawn into trying to solve the big mystery of why the dead are rising now, at this particular juncture of human history. What does it mean, and who or what is behind it? That’s the arc story, if you like, which becomes a bigger and bigger focus as the series continues, although each book still works as a stand-alone story.
BBB: Do you have any stray plot bunnies running around in your head and do you think something may come of them?
MC: I keep a notebook, and a file on my desktop, where I dump all the stray ideas that occur to me. Most of them seem really exciting at first, but fail to turn into anything substantial when you interrogate them. A few pop back to life much later on, and that’s always a great feeling.
BBB: Do you find readers in the states react differently to your work than do your British readers?
MC: In a way that’s a hard question for me to answer, since I mostly meet my fans online and have no idea where they lead the physical part of their existence. I’m going to say no: I find kindred spirits everywhere. The UK has a checkered history in respect of genre fiction, but it only seems to be TV executives here who mistrust horror and sci-fi. Everyone else is cool with it.
BBB: If your series had a theme song, what would it be?
MC: Death Is Not the End, by Bob Dylan, as sung by Nick Cave.
BBB: If you could pick one of your characters to have dinner with, who would it be and why?
MC: Juliet. You have to imagine that sheepishly mumbled. If someone like her existed, you’d really want to see her - in the same way that moths like to see candles and bugs like to see windshields.
BBB: If you could shapeshift, what animal would you be? And why?
MC: These are surreal questions! I’d be a cat. Cats have it all sewn up. People give them stuff just because they’re cute.
BBB: In your opinion, is the paranormal/urban fantasy genre as popular in the UK as it is here in the US?
MC: Apart from those TV executives I mentioned, yes. There’s a thriving sci-fi/fantasy/horror/speculative fiction scene in the UK, which I kick around the fringes of. We have some great festivals, including Eastercon and Fantasycon.
BBB: Do you like writing novels or comics better?
MC: That’s like asking someone if they have a favourite sexual position. Sex is always fun, even if you’re standing on your head or hanging from a chandelier or you’ve got your foot jammed down behind the headboard. And telling stories is a great thing for me, in any medium. It’s fair to say that the rewards are different, as well as the processes, but I love both, and I’d find it hard to give up either.
BBB: Who are some of the authors you enjoy reading?
MC: Ursula LeGuin, Mervyn Peake, Roger Zelazny, Michael Swanwick. Terry Pratchett almost goes without saying. Some Gene Wolfe, especially the Torturer books. China Mieville. Steven Hall, whose Raw Shark Texts has to be one of the best debut novels ever. Michael Moorcock. And in comics the holy trinity of Nail Gaiman, Alan Moore and Grant Morrison - they never disappoint.
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Learn more about Mike Carey here:
Read reviews of the author’s work here.
To visit the author’s website go here.
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CONTEST: PLEASE NOTE THE NEW CONTEST EMAIL ADDRESS TO SEND YOUR ENTRIES TO BELOW. There are also revisions to the rules for this contest, please read them all carefully. Also, PLEASE LEAVE YOUR FIRST AND THE INITIAL OF YOUR LAST NAME in your comment/post so we can give you the proper credit for your entries.
Readers, here’s how to enter the contest. You can do just ONE or ALL of these things, and each thing you do will give you additional entries at a chance to WIN. REMEMBER you have Until 7/24/09 at 11:59 pm PDT to do the different things that YOU choose to do. Contest is open to readers worldwide!
Mike will be giving away SIX copies of his new release Dead Men’s Boots
PLEASE NOTE THE NEW CONTEST EMAIL ADDRESS TO SEND YOUR ENTRIES TO BELOW.
1. The easiest way to enter is by purchasing copies of Mike’s book from Amazon or Barnes & Noble.
From Amazon:
Books in the Felix Castor series in the order they should be read:
The Devil You Know
Vicious Circle
Dead Men’s Boots
Thicker Than Water
The Naming of the Beasts
Good for 300 entries per book you purchase by using the links above.
OR you can use the Barnes & Noble search banner on the right hand side of the site or this link HERE to make your purchase of ANY kind of merchandise during the contest. You can also use the Amazon search box or this link HERE to shop as well. Good for 100 entries to the contest for EACH item you purchase. Not valid on past purchases.
It is NOT mandatory to purchase anything to enter the contests, there are plenty of other ways to enter and win. Just email us a copy of your purchase receipt to bittenbybooks.contests @ gmail.com (no spaces). Sorry no faxes or snail mail copies.
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The contest ends on 7/24/09 at 11:59 pm PDT and the winners will be contacted via email. You will receive your prize bag directly from the publisher. PLEASE LEAVE YOUR FIRST AND THE INITIAL OF YOUR LAST NAME as well as a valid email where we can contact you. REMEMBER the more things you do, the more entries, the greater the chances of winning.
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(3 votes, average: 5 out of 5)
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Hi Mike!
I just wanted to thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule to be here today with us at BBB!
It is always exciting to have somebody who is so diverse in the type of work they do.
How often do you make it stateside? And do you have any plans to attend any conferences in the US this year where fans can meet you?
Rachel from BBB
[Reply]
My pleasure, Rachel. I tend to visit the States once a year, on average - and it’s most usually in July, for San Diego. Not this year, though. I scooted over for New York Con in February, and I haven’t managed to get back since. I’m really suffering withdrawal right now, because everyone I know is posting “Just off to Comic-Con” as their Facebook status. Next year I’m aiming to do two US cons and probably the Ottawa literary festival, too…
[Reply]
Hi Mike,
Thanks for being here. I greatly enjoyed the interview! (I don’t have a question at this time, and as I already have the 3 Castor books available stateside, I’m not here for the contest — very cool though it is.)
Regarding your comment about a Juliet or Nicky novel: I think that’d be an excellent addendum to the Castor universe (of course, I say this having no clue about what happens to them or said universe in the next 3 books). In this supernatural world of intriguing and rich characters, Juliet is the most intriguing and rich of the supporting cast, in my opinion. The paradox of her existence, as illustrated best by the relationship between her and Castor, is thought-provoking and offers the potential for so many story possibilities within and outside of the Castor series. Much of this commentary could also easily apply to Nicky, and he’d make a worthwhile individual novel, too; I simply prefer Juliet.
Thanks for your time, Mike. Take care.
Ray
[Reply]
Cheers, Ray. Yeah, Juliet is always enormously enjoyable to write. In some ways she reminds me of Lucifer - I don’t mean because of the Hell connection, I mean because they’re both ruthlessly direct and never lie or disguise their feelings. For some reason, characters like that appeal to me…
[Reply]
Hello Mike,
Ah Mike you missed the San Diego Comic Con Zombies, if you did go to comic-con, what would your zombie attire consist of?
[Reply]
My usual gear looks pretty zombified to start with, Cyd. I’d enhance it with a latex mask, though. I met a woman at SDCC three or four years back who was dressed as Mazikeen, complete with half-rotted face. It was a sensational costume.
[Reply]
Oh!
Here’s a joke Felix might appreciate. LOL
How do they make holy water?
.
..
….
Wait for it…..
They boil the HELL out of it!
[Reply]
Lisa R
I RSVPed.
What do you think of this sudden fascination for the paranormal as far as tv shows are concerned? So far, I have been very disappointed in the tv shows that were based on a series. They have however made me seek out books that until seeing the tv show, I was unfamiliar with. Do you think that most of the tv shows can and do truly portray the books as the authors intended? Do the authors of the books have any say in the way the tv show tells the story or is once it’s picked up by the networks, are the networks in control?
[Reply]
Lisa R
I RSVPed.
Another question!
I love the idea that so many exceptional paranormal writers are writing for the YA market. I had always felt this was an area that would help turn kids on to reading and not only benefit the writers now but also later as they made reading a part of their lifetime experience. Many authors have added a YA series to their writing, do you intend to do this and if so can you give us a brief look at what you are planning?
[Reply]
Boil the hell… oy gevalt!
Lisa - I think whenever you adapt a work to a different medium, you have to change and re-invent it. I think it was CONSTANTINE that brought that home to me more than anything. It was a good movie in its own right - well, an okay movie - but it was so far divorced from the comic book that using that title just guaranteed anyone who saw it in that light would be disappointed.
Do authors have any say? Usually not. It’s possible to get a contract that gives you creative input, but that’s not the same as control by any means - unless you’re J.K.Rowling…
[Reply]
Hello Mike
I’m been a big fan since your work on Lucifer for Vertigo. When guys at the local comic shop heard you were taking over writing duties on X-Men people panicked. I find it funny that 3 years later most say your writing is the best the series has seen. I feel not since Maris and Mantle has there been M&M’s combo as good as Matt Fraction and Mike Carey. I’ve read the first two books in your Felix Castor series and greatly enjoyed them. My Barnes and Noble didn’t receive their shipment of Dead Men’s Boots so it’s on order. I’m impressed with how many comic book writers have found success writing novels.
My question was going to be about switching between writing comics and novels, but Rachel is so good she already asked it.
So as a backup question I would like to ask if you find it hard to write about other locations. I mean most writers will set their worlds up in thier home states are someplace close like you for Felix in London.
[Reply]
Where did the concept of Felix Castor come from? I mean exorcism via music just seems so out there.
[Reply]
RSVP’ed
I have to admit sheepishly of course that have not read your work yet. However that being said it sounds like your take is an interesting one to read….
My question is the easiest one you may ever have to answer, what got you started in the business of books and comic writing in the first place?
[Reply]
Sorry, you also asked why there was this sudden vogue for the supernatural. I think genres go in and out of fashion, and in speculative fiction one of the biggest trends over the past decade has been towards what’s called “urban fantasy” - ie, supernatural horror in modern settings, with some of the themes and flavour of noir or of crime thriller. That’s a very attractive package for TV execs: the budget will be less than for a Tolkienesque high fantasy, and the barrier for “suspension of disbelief” is lower…
[Reply]
Lisa - no plans at the moment, although I did do some YA comic books - most notably Re-Gifters and Confessions of a Blabbermouth, for DC’s tragically short-lived Minx imprint. I’d love to do some more YA stuff, but I haven’t gotten around to thinking about exactly what it would be, yet. I think there’s some amazing stuff being written for that audience.
Rocky - glad you’re enjoying the X-Men! It’s true, I do tend to go for places I know wherever I can. When I wrote Voodoo Child for Virgin Comics, I felt like I couldn’t write about New Orleans unless I’d actually been there, so I took a short trip and ended up being there for Mardi Gras. Ah, it’s a dirty job, but someone’s got to do it…
Elaine - I just wanted to have a mechanism for exorcism that would change according to the personality and experience of the person who was doing it. I’m not sure when I decided Castor should have a tin whistle. Maybe I was listening to a Jethro Tull album…
Jackie - I started out writing comics journalism, then got sucked into writing actual scripts very slowly and gradually. I could have made the same journey a lot more quickly, but I was very tentative at first about showing my work to anyone.
[Reply]
Hi Mike! I’ve been hearing about your books all over the internet and they sound great! So what do you like best about being a published author, and what’s the worst part?
I RSVPed, and asked to be Mike’s facebook friend. Thanks!
[Reply]
I thought the supporting cast was great in Constantine, especially Tilda Swinton as Gabriel. If you didn’t know anything about the comic, then even Keanu Reeves did okay, he just wasn’t John Constantine. I think Jim Butcher at a book signing said it best about book to tv transition. When your writing a book it’s easy to say a nearly 7 foot tall character gets into a VW Bug, but when you have a 6′5″ actor try to get into a VW Bug it just doesn’t work.
[Reply]
I do agree that genres/categories are a way to sell books but Damn- we love Fix-
have coerced every member of the immediate family into reading the cycle so far
and they all thank me afterwords.
but the spouse wants to know why is it that Felix isn’t dead yet- for not actually a superhero?
he’s had the sh*t pounded out of him more often than not . . .
I work in a book store while I can handsell a lot of your stuff by word of mouth but the graphics connection does help a lot.
btw- imported the last Fix book from the UK (wasn’t out here yet) and came home one night to having had the puppy eat the last 100 pages Very selectively. Argh
Keep going, can’t wait for the rest
[Reply]
I just love telling stories, Kimberly. Another writer I know (and live with) puts it very romantically - “what we want most of all is to see our words become the light in someone else’s eyes”. It’s very cool to tell stories, and to have people read them or listen to them and enjoy them. There’s a sense in which it never becomes entirely real: so whenever you see another book or comic actually published, there’s a weird thrill as you think “I brought this into the world”.
The worst part… rewrites. Or maybe bad reviews.
[Reply]
Rocky - I agree. Both Tilda Swinton and Peter Stormare were terrific.
newgater - yeah, it’s true. Castor has taken a LOT of damage over the few years covered by the books. There’s a scene towards the end of Dead Men’s Boots where Juliet lends him a little strength in her own unique way. You could maybe see that as a sort of reset button, helping him to heal from the earlier injuries. But still… you’ve got to figure he’s living on borrowed time.
The LAST 100 pages? Your dog is a sadist…
[Reply]
Mike,
I’ve really enjoyed your comics work and wanted to take the opportunity to say “thank you” for the hours of entertainment you’ve already provided me. Lucifer, My Faith in Frankie, Crossing Midnight, especially, and now The Unwritten are among my favorite comics. When I stumbled across _The Devil You Know_ I was very pleasantly surprised and even more pleased when I was done reading it. I’m reading Vicious Circle now.
So, since I came to know you first as a comic book writer I’m curious if you’re using the same process of plotting and pacing with Castor as you might do with your comics work? How does your process work?
Thank you for all the entertaining reads. I heard about this because you posted it on Facebook this morning and I’m glad to have had the chance to ask the questions.
[Reply]
Cheers, Jason - really glad you’re enjoying the books. Frankie is still one of the stories I’m proudest of having written.
It’s a very different process with a novel because of the way the deadlines work. With comics, if you’re writing a multi-part arc, you have to send each script in as it’s done, and then a week or so later it’s with the penciller. After that, your freedom to change your mind is effectively zero, although you have some latitude with dialogue until the lettering draft is done.
You live with a novel for eight or nine months, and you can change your mind at any time even about quite major things.
What this means is that with comics, everything is front-loaded: your working plan has to be immaculate. A plan for a novel can be looser because you know that some things will evolve and come clear as you write.
[Reply]
Hi Mike. Thanks so much for joining us here today. I have your first book calling to me from my tbr shelf, and after reading this great interview I plan to get to it sooner rather than later.
I loved your comment about a house being so full of books that people are beginning to be displaced. I have that very same situation at my house.
I hope you will make it to some fan conventions in the US sometime.
I did RSVP.
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Cheers, Carol. I actually spent part of last week building some bookshelves. But it’s like carriageway widening on a motorway: by the time it’s done, the traffic has got so much heavier that you’re back where you started…
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http://iyamvixenbooks.blogspot.com/2009/07/bbb-and-mike-carey-today.html
~I RSVP’d
~a BBB Facebook chickie
~Subscribe to BBB
~Bloodbank IYamVixen
~BBB Goodreads buddy
~BBB Shelfari buddy
~will ask for Facebook buddy time with Mike when I get to my home computer…work servers don’t much like Facebook
Mike: I greatly enjoyed THE DEVIL YOU KNOW when I read it last month. VICIOUS CIRCLE is next up on my book ordering. I hope to turn my sister onto your books as I did with Jim Butcher.
I think Juliet is my favorite character. I could be cautious friends with her. I’m not typically fond of having female friends as they tend to have hidden agendas. Juliet doesn’t seem to have one and I admire that. She also doesn’t take any ‘cwap’ as my 6 year old daughter would say.
Thanks for doing this interview!
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Hi Mike,
I have to confess I haven’t yet read your books, but they have been on my wish list, for awhile now. After reading your interview, they are going to go to my shopping cart. I always thought a comic would be easier to write than a novel, but you have made me look at them in a different light.
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Hey Mike,
I’m new to your writing but the series sounds very cool.
My Q: did you aim for your books to be genre-benders, or was that another case of serendipity? (I agree, genres are for book stores, and it doesn’t always work).
I RSVP’d, sent a friend request to Mike (as my alter ego CA Masterson).
Best of luck with your series, Mike!
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Vickie - yeah, I agree with you on both counts. All of Juliet’s agendas are very much out in the open - and it would be a brave man (or woman, or demon) who tried to give her any cwap.
But I suspect you’re right on the caution front, too: she’s not always *easy* to be friends with, as Castor finds out in Dead Men’s Boots (and then again, for different reasons, in The Naming of the Beasts).
Lorraine - well, because I’ve written 400 or so comic scripts, and only five novels, the comics *do* tend to come easier. I just meant that writing novels gives you a different set of tools - and more freedom in some respects…
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Cate - yeah, I always saw them as “supernatural crime thriller”. I wanted to play the mysteries very straight - ie, not use the supernatural elements as wild cards - but also try to get some of the horror vibe in there undiluted. It’s a tough balancing act, because the more you appeal to reason (in setting up a mystery) the more danger there is of defusing the horror. But that’s part of what makes this genre fusion so fascinating.
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RSVP
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Wow, embryogenesis, is that in the dictionary? I need it to add it to my word of the day!
Does the smell of freshly-baked bread make you cringe?
I am new your books/comics but I am interested in your stories.
I was wondering if you have any input into the cover of your books?
When you author comics, do you write and illustrate them?
I rsvp’d
already member of blood bank, newsletter, bbb friend at myspace and facebook, bbb is on my links page http://ellzreadz.blogspot.com/
I also added a link to Mike’s page on my blogspot http://ellzreadz.blogspot.com/
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Hi Mike
The thing I like about BBB is that I read to met and read about author that new to me. Thanks for stoping by. You are a very busy man. When you do have time…who and what book are you currently reading (other than your own stuff)?
RSVP’d #20
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Following BBB on Twitter: Kainanz
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6. Friends with Mike:
Facebook: Kainani Enos Peter (pending approval)
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Hi Mike. How did you come up with the name Felix Castor?
Added his website to my blog http://cc-chronicles.blogspot.com and friended on Facebook. Already a BBB groupie everywhere.
Chris C
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Hi Mike,
Sounds like you live an interesting and varied life. I’m intrigued by your Felix Castor books, this is the first I’ve heard of them so looking forward to checking them out.
What is involved with writing comics? Are you the only one who works on a particular comic world for x amount of issues? When working on something where the world and central characters have been created by someone else how is your own creative control affected?
What is a typical working week like?
BBB Prize Goddess:
Subscribe to BBB newsletter,
Follow BBB on Twitter & tweeted link today:
http://twitter.com/Littlemisshugs
BBB friend on Myspace, permanent link to BBB on my Myspace profile & seen as Mike Careys’ website seems so interesting I’ve added the link to that on their too in my Books section:
http://www.myspace.com/littlemisshugs
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BBB Prize Goddess,
I apologise for using their instead of there no idea why I did that. I also forgot to say I RSVPed.
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I know what you mean about the shelves, Mike. No matter how many I get to handle the overflow, I always seem to need more…
I missed the earlier question and your answer regarding fan conventions. Do keep Dragon*Con in mind for the future.
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Hi Mike,
If you could trade places with any one fictional character, who would it be and why?
Bridget
Shared:
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http://www.myspace.com/bridgetlaprairie (blog section)
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http://bridget3420.blogspot.com/2009/07/interview-chat-and-contest-with-author_23.html
http://freebies4meandu.blogspot.com/2009/07/interview-chat-and-contest-with-author_23.html
BBB email subscriber
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Member of Facebook group - Bridget Hopper
Good Read friend - Bridget Hopper
Facebook friend - Bridget Hopper
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BBB is on my blogroll - http://bridget3420.blogspot.com
Sent Mike a Facebook friend request
Mike’s site link is on my sidebar - Awesome Authors section - http://bridget3420.blogspot.com
RSVP’d
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I posted earlier today but I think it got lost in cyber land so I’m repost.
Hi Mike, How did you come up with the name Felix Castor?
added Mike’s website to my blog http://cc-chronicles.blogspot.com
and friended on Facebook.
Shout out to Rachel- Hope you are recovering from an overly fabulous birthday!!
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did forget to say I RSVP’d in either of them. or leave my first name & initial. It’s the meds
Chris C
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Is Dragon Con in Georgia, Carol? I’d love to do that show one day, and see that part of the US.
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Hi Mike!
Have to admit that I’m a new fan, but will definitely move your books to the top of my wishlist! I was curious if you find the actual process of writing easy or hard. Do the words just flow, or do you have to sweat out every chapter? Hoping that the words just flow for you and you’re simply taking dictation!
I RSVP’d
I’m friends with BBB on Goodreads
Friends w/BBB on MySpace
Follow BBB on Twitter
Have a link to BBB’s site on my blog:
Alexia561.blogspot.com
And am also a BBB subscriber
I’ve also sent out a tweet about this contest
Think that’s everything. Thanks!
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Thanks for spreading the word, Terri.
Truthfully? I have good days and bad days. There are times when everything just falls into place without any effort, and there are other times when I go over and over the same scene without getting it right. It’s a weird thing, and I think part of it is about vectors. If you’re pointing in the right direction in the first place, everything flows: if you’re not, things that should be easy turn out to be arduous.
So the moral is, only tell the stories you’re meant to tell…
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Yes, Mike, Dragon*Con is in Atlanta every year, Labor Day weekend. There is an impressive list of guests this year, and more will be added.
The American South — there is no place else quite like it.
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How do you decide if a novel is going to be a one off or part of a series?
When writing a series how much of what you know about recurring characters in say book four did you know when writing book one?
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I’ve never written a free-standing novel, Rebecca - just the Castor books. I am planning a one-off novel, though, so I can talk about the decisions that were involved there.
In the Castor books, the idea was to create this world and then to explore it, a little at a time - and the delays in revealing key information are a part of the whole experience. The mysteries illuminate this piece and then that piece of the big picture, and when you get the final reveal you should get the sense of a whole lot of things suddenly turning out to be connected.
The one-off novel I’m planning has a single theme - or you could say two inter-related themes - which will play out very well across four or five hundred pages. Nothing would be gained by adding in beats and prolonging it into a series.
As to how much I knew in advance… only the major beats. A lot of the character development comes from putting the characters into situations and seeing how they react. I plan arcs for Castor, Juliet, Rafi, Pen, but they don’t always work out. For example, Juliet’s choice of a partner wasn’t in the original plan I had for her. It just made more and more sense as I was writing.
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Carol, if you happen to meet any of the Dragon Con organisers, please make a significant throat-clearing noise on my behalf…
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Hi Mike! I can’t wait to read your books!
My question is, what do you do to keep yourself from procrastinating the finishing touches of a story?
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Hi Mike!
You are a new author to me. Nice to meet you! Your books sound great!
I RSVPd
am subscribed to bbb and the blood bank
am friends with bbb on myspace and facebook
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Will do, Mike. Significant.
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Hi, Mike. Thanks for being here. I have to admit that I have not read any of your books, YET. I am finding so many authors since joining BBB.
How do you come up with the names for your characters?
I have done all things required.
dbarskey06, faerydreamer64, Dianne Barskey
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Hi Mike!
I was just wondering who are your favorite authors, in your genre and others?
-I RSVP’d, subscribe to the BBB newsletter and am a member of the blood bank as Amanda Leigh
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I think my post was missed too, sorry if it is a repeat of another question. Just tell me to go reread if I need be..
Wow, embryogenesis, is that in the dictionary? I need it to add it to my word of the day!
Does the smell of freshly-baked bread make you cringe?
I am new your books/comics but I am interested in your stories.
I was wondering if you have any input into the cover of your books?
When you author comics, do you write and illustrate them?
I rsvp’d
already member of blood bank, newsletter, bbb friend at myspace and facebook, bbb is on my links page http://ellzreadz.blogspot.com/
I also added a link to Mike’s page on my blogspot http://ellzreadz.blogspot.com/
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Hi Mike!
Welcome to BBB! What a great and informative interview. If you had to pick one place in the world to spend immortality, where would it be and why? Thank you again for a great interview!
-VA
(Hey PG! Twitter, FB, friends with BBB everywhere and BBB is on blogroll)
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Hi Mike,
can you tell us anything about Frost Flowers?
Thanks
RSVPd , am subscribed to bbb and the blood bank, Following BBB on Twitter
Sharon K.
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Hi Mike welcome to BBB
Supernatural aspects of all generas r fun to read but what is your view on the supernatural in the world out side of books and fiction
As a kid i loved comics and i have to say i have a love for x-men and rouge and gambit whos your fav comic book character and why
I rsvped
i have you on
subscribed to your news letter
myspace -myspace.com/forever14n9
good reads
blood bank- Beverly Gordon
face book- Beverly Gordon
twitter -@bainesgoddess
face book group
my blog roll - http://zenes-escape.blogspot.com/
i posted the contest link on
myspace blogs
myspace.com/forever14n9
my blog - http://zenes-escape.blogspot.com/
Mike i friended you on face book
added you to my blog - http://zenes-escape.blogspot.com/
I look forward to reading more about you and of your work
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I RSVP’d.
I get the BBB newsletter.
I made a purchase at the Bloody Cafe Store.
It was a rather tidy plot device for you to have all the different paranormal creatures be basically the same thing, ghosts in one form or another. Makes it a lot more easily controlled. You don’t have to worry about different rules for the various types of creatures. Juliet as your choice of character to have dinner with is interesting. A hidden death wish and what a way to go.
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Thanks for coming by! I’m definitely going to have to check these books out! As a big fan of Jim Butcher’s, it sounds like your books hold much the same appeal. Male protagonists are always fresh to read in UF so I look forward to it! This may have been asked, but how did Castor’s character first come to you? I’m always captivated by the genesis of characters in an author’s mind.
I RSVPed
I’m a - Facebook friend - Facebook fan - Myspace friend - Twitter follower (ashleynewcomb), and a BBB Newsletter subscriber (stalkerish? me? nooooo)
BBB is also on my blog roll at http://ashleynewcomb.blogspot.com
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Oh dear, I just realized my question was answered in the interview itself. That’s what I get for reading these things late… *sigh* Disregard my rambling.
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Hi Mike,
I’m a big fan of your Lucifer and Crossing Midnight Books. I was wondering, considering that you have such a huge cast of characters, how do you go about creating such diverse and unforgettable characters notably Lucifer himself?
Also, how many issues have been planned for Crossing Midnight?
Thanks.
I RSVPed.
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Um, tagging on to my earlier question - that’s what happens when you hit the submit button too quickly! - how do you keep track of all the characters and what point of their lives they’re at when we meet them again? Do you roughly know what goes on with them when they’re off page?
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Seri - it’s tough, sometimes. Tight deadlines help, but there’s always a temptation to keep tinkering with things. With comics, the bottom line is that if I deliver late, the artist can’t start working and so can’t get paid. It’s the writer’s responsibility to make sure that doesn’t happen, so you just have to discipline yourself. It’s harder with Castor: I’ve been known to do very late overhauls of certain scenes. Sometimes I’ll revise a scene when we get to the proofreading stage, because it’s still bugging me.
Nice to meet you too, Cheryl.
Diane - I’ve been known to resort to those baby name sites. Shopping for names feels a little ridiculous, but it saves you from unconsciously re-using names, which is something all writers are prone to do. But there’s always a magic litmus test: some names feel right, most feel wrong. You have to roll them around your tongue a lot of times and see how they taste.
Amanda - I’ve listed some of my favourite authors in the interview. I’ve always read fantasy and sci-fi voraciously. Probably my first favourite author was Enid Blyton, way back when I was six years old. The Wishing Chair and Faraway Tree stories were my introduction to fantasy, and they really had a profound effect on me. Then as I got older I got into Michael Moorcock, then Roger Zelazny, Mervyn Peake, Ursula LeGuin. I went through everything that Asimov had ever written. A lot of Bob Shaw, J.G.Ballard (although I was a bit young at the time to get into the whole New Worlds thing), Brian Aldiss, A.E. Van Vogt, E.E. Smith… More recently I’ve been reading China Mieville, whose Bas Lag stories are sensationally good, Michael Swanwick, Gene Wolfe, Terry Pratchett, and yet more LeGuin, because she’s still writing wonderful books.
Elie - I love the smell of freshly baked bread.
I can’t draw to save my life. I wish I could, but it’s just not in my skill-set. When I was a kid, I used to draw comics for my younger brother, Dave, but I could never draw people so I drew animated eggs instead.
I have some input into covers, but really those decisions are taken by the publishers: they just allow me to express my opinions, which are taken into account along with everybody else’s opinions.
Virginia - I could happily spend the rest of eternity in the Lake District, in Northern England. Despite the very high rainfall, it’s one of the most beautiful places in the world.
Sharon - Frost Flowers is now defunct, I’m sad to say. The two production companies involved had a messy divorce, and my screenplay was one of the orphaned children. It was the story of a guy who becomes sexually obsessed by a ghost, and eventually succeeds in having a kind of relationship with her.
Patricia - it’s a case of curiosity killing the cat. If she existed, I’d just have to meet her…
Ashley - no worries. I went ahead and answered anyway, then read your second post, so we both got caught out.
Lesley - Lucifer is a good example of a character who I got to know gradually. The big, broad strokes of his personality were already there when I started writing him (of course he existed before, in Sandman, and I wrote him in line with the way he’d been shown there), but then other stuff kept coming in as I started to think about how he’d react in certain situations, what would drive him, what would anger him. I think I finally got his voice right in issue 4 of the monthly book - Born With the Dead - but I was still adding fine touches to his character throughout the first year on the book.
Crossing Midnight was planned to be an ongoing book, and ideally would have gone on for some 60 or 70 issues, but it would always have ended with thr story we used as the wrap-up in volume 3.
I do give my main characters off-page lives, up to a point. I’m always more or less aware of where they’ve been and where they’re going, although I seldom write that stuff down as notes - it’s just in my head. If we’ve lost track of a character for a while, I recap that stuff in my mind before I start to write them again.
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Some posts I missed earlier on (not sure how):-
Rebecca - a lot of my comics writing has been in “shared universes”, where a whole lot of characters starring in a whole lot of books are assumed to be living in the same world and interacting with each other. That’s particularly true of the X-Men, which I’m currently writing: there are half a dozen monthly X-Men books and numerous miniseries going on at any given time, and my characters move in and out of these other books. It makes the editor’s role absolutely crucial: he or she has to harmonise what’s going on in the different books and make sure there are no blatant contradictions.
It’s a tough gig sometimes, especially when you’ve been setting something up painstakingly and then it becomes impossible because of what’s happening elsewhere. I had a storyline involving the character Cassandra Nova - but Joss Whedon, in Astonishing X-Men, got to her first, so my story had to be revised at a fairly late stage. It comes with the territory, though, so you just roll with it. The joy of writing X-Men is that I’m adding chapters to a story that meant a lot to me when I was a kid growing up. It’s a great feeling.
A typical working week starts with comics and ends with prose. Comics deadlines are tighter, so I usually try to get to them first. My working day, though, is completely unstructured. I work long but erratic hours, especially during term time when I’m also doing school runs and making meals for the kids. My wife works in the centre of London and has quite a long commute, so a lot of that stuff falls to me: it makes for long gaps in the working day and late finishes.
Bridget - Babar the Elephant. King, family man, traveller and adventurer, he seems to be able to have it all…
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Sorry I missed out on this fun but glad it’s still posted so I could catch up. Great interview and Q&A. Thanks for your time, Mike. Now I definitely want to read the Felix series.
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Hi Mike,
so if Frost Flowers is now defunct, will you be turning it into a novel or are you holding out for the chance at other producers?
Sounds interesting!
Sharon K.
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Hi again Mike,
Thanks for answering my previous questions. I hope you don’t mind that I’m back for one more: What advice would you give about writing climaxes? Is there a sort of formula you always use?
Thanks.
PS : I love Enid Blyton too!
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Not sure, Sharon. The rights situation is complicated. I was paid for the screenplay and for the development work, so if I did develop it in a different medium I’d probably have to reimburse Hadaly for what they paid me. I need to go back and check the contract…
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Lesley - no, I don’t really have a formula. The closest thing I have to a rule is just the obvious one of the bait and switch: if the audience are expecting ending A, that’s the one thing you can’t give them.
Actually, there is one other rule I sometimes bear in mind. Alisa Kwitney, my first editor on Lucifer, said this to me a long time ago: “if a plot element is worth using at all, it’s worth using twice.” It doesn’t apply universally, and she didn’t mean it to - but if you’re going to make the climax hinge on one specific thing, then you have to have already justified that thing’s place in the story so it seems to be “used up” on a narrative level and no loner significant.
An example: the christening spoon in THE FURIES. It’s a silver spoon that Linda was given by her father. When Verian uses it to mix his favourite narcotic, the silver flakes away and reveals the spoon to be iron - so at this point the spoon appears to be a metaphor for how unreliable Linda’s father was, and how foolish she was to idealise him. But then in the climax she uses the spoon as a weapon against Mab, who like all fairies is vulnerable to cold iron. The first scene sets up the second, but seems not to - it seems to be complete in itself.
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Hi Mike,
Thank you for the answers & an interesting chat. I particularily enjoyed your silver spoon example. I’ve managed to get my mitts on ‘The Devil you know’ today so as soon as I’ve finished my current book I will begin my expoloration of Felix Castors’ world.
Rachel & BBB thank you for introducing me to another author!
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I just wanted to say thank you for spending your time sharing with everyone, and for the wonderfully indept answers you gave. This was an incredible interview/Q&A.
Looks like my book wishlist just got a little longer.
Congrats on the new release, and the multitude of projects you have going on.
iokijo … Jo Ann J.
BBB..RSVP’d/newsletter sub/twitter follower/member blood bank.
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I RSVP’d.
3.) What movie can you watch and never get tired of?
4.) I subscribe through email.
I am a member of The Blood Bank (ValorieTucker).
Friend on Good Reads (morbidromantic).
Friend on Facebook.
Friend on Twitter (morbidromantic).
Bitten by Books is on my blogroll on my right sidebar under Book Blogs (http://www.morbid-romantic.net).
5.) Blogged: http://www.morbid-romantic.net/2009/07/21/book-giveaways-07-20-07-26/
Posted at Ning: http://bookblogs.ning.com/profiles/blogs/win-an-ipod-at-bitten-by-books
7.) Tweet: http://twitter.com/morbidromantic/statuses/2833971034
Valorie T.
USA
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[...] Mike Carey’s Dead Men’s Boots at Bitten by Books Contest ends July [...]
Rachel, thank you for inviting me. Your interview with Mike was very interesting.
Mike you have such diversity in your work, it amazed me. I hope to read some of your writing soon. I didn’t know you wrote comics as well. That is so cool. Good luck with your latest release.
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