Always on beat, the BSC is back with another edition of our 10-question, topic specific, interview format, The BookSpot Beat. Today we corner Eric Nylund and talk about his forthcoming novel, Mortal Coils, a kick-off to a 5-books series being published by Tor next month (February 3rd). Nylund is a NY Times Bestselling novelist, and has been nominated for the World Fantasy Award for Best Novel (for Dry Water). He’s also a writer and story consultant for Microsoft Game Studios, and has contributed to great American therapeutic endeavors like Gears of War and Halo. You can view the full press release for more information.
You can check him out, and keep up to date with Mr. Nylund’s work at his blog.
Jay Tomio – Mortal Coils is coming out from Tor in February – can you give readers at BSC an exclusive in terms of what we should expect that I can’t read by going to Amazon reading a summary or any other publicity you’ve done elsewhere? I know what it is, but tell us why I’m going to love it.
Eric Nylund - Sure. First a word about what you might see online. While Amazon isn’t posting reviews of people who have gotten a hold of advanced reading copies, there are several people who have read those ARCS and posted lengthy and detailed comments on barnesandnoble.com for those who are interested.
Okay—so here’s something exclusive just for BSC. The protagonists in this story, Eliot and Fiona Post, are subjected to three heroic trials and three diabolical temptations, so let me tell you a little something about the diabolical temptations…which might also tempt your readers to check out the book.
One of the classic temptations is, of course, seduction. For Fiona this takes the form of a never ending, ever full box of Infernal chocolates… with some very unusual side effects. For the boy, what can I say, sometimes the classics are most effective, and the fallen angels send a girl to cause his downfall. Again with not quite with the results the Infernals are counting on.
NOTE: for those women readers protesting there’s not a boy to seduce Fiona…there is, he’s just on the Immortal side of the equation.
Jay Tomio – The press release says that you ‘love’ Urban Fantasy. I was wondering if you would mind sharing the roots of that affection, how it has grown, changed, or remained the same over the years? Also, what is ‘urban fantasy’ to you?
Eric Nylund - It’s funny how these categories mutate over the years. In my mind, I’ve lumped urban and contemporary fantasy together ( the term “urban” seems to have popped up and often too-liberally applied books to make them a cooler and associate them to the current vampire–werewolf–Hunter-paranormal Romance category that is popular).
The roots of my infatuation with contemporary/urban fantasy go all the way back to C.S. Lewis. The adventures of Peter, Edmund, Susan, and Lucy all start in the normal, real world and then progress to do things more fantastical. Their behavior is so ingrained as who and what they are as normal teenagers and children of the period, I always think of the Narnia series as part contemporary (and all the more fascinating because you get to watch the plot and these normal Earth characters evolve into their epic high-fantasy incarnations).
As I grew up my tastes gravitated towards Roger Zelazny and Harlan Ellison (and while Harlan might wrestle me to the ground for saying some of his work is fantasy—just try reading Grail and tell me that’s not fantasy (and a darned good one I might add). As far as Zelazny is concerned I am a big fan of his Lord of Light, Creatures of Light and Dark, and the Amber series—all of which heavily influence my work. If you read Mortal Coils you’ll see those fine gentlemans’ influence.
Jay Tomio – Would you describe Mortal Coils as fiction suitable for a younger audience?
Eric Nylund - Absolutely. It’s appropriate the same way Ender’s Game or A Wizard of Earthsea is appropriate for a younger audience as well as adults.
One reason I wrote Mortal Coils is because I’ve gotten thousands of e-mails from boys and girls ages 13 to 16 who were playing HALO and read my novels and very much enjoyed them (I cannot answer what those kids were doing playing a mature-rated game; you’ll have to take that up with her parents).
In any event, I think those HALO novels appeals across demographics, especially The Fall of Reach because it shows children being empowered to do fantastical things—the kinds of things that we all wish we could have done as children and young adults. That’s universal.
Jay Tomio – Twins are a favored element in mythology all over the world. Why twins? Is there research involving twins from myths you are going to play with or is it simple cut and dry choice. Were twins something you particularly wanted to examine? Is there significance in their names?
Eric Nylund - I picked twins as my protagonists first for the psychological aspects—how they could be genetically identical (apart from gender), be so much alike, but end up so different. Eliot and Fiona are also geniuses and I have a lot of fun showing how they use their high IQs to get on each other’s nerves, tease each other, and eventually work together to be much more than the sum of their parts.
Another reason I use twins is because they represent equal, but different, aspects of their two familial heritages (the immortal gods and the fallen angels). And over the course of the five novels you’ll find out which twin takes after which side more…and the dire consequences of that.
Of course, as you mention, there many mythological aspects about twins to mine and weave into the project as well.
Jay Tomio – Is Mortal Coils a stand-alone in that it’s a complete story, and the next books are (continuing) new complete adventures with the framework of a larger story?
Eric Nylund - Mortal Coils is a stand-alone novel which serves as a launching point for the rest of the story. The next four books, while episodic with respect to some storylines, become very much part of a greater story arc and so they would not stand alone as well as his first novel. I have no intention to milk this series across twenty books (my personal idea of purgatory). I’m putting in all the juicy, tantalizing bits in these five books—and that’s it.
This story structure should, however, give my readers a chance to try Mortal Coils, and decide for themselves if they’re willing to invest their time and hard-earned money in the rest of the series. I think they will.
Jay Tomio – The question levied to all creators who have worked in shared-setting or media-tied projects is, “How has the transition to your own project been?” I ask you that question now, and how have these projects informed Mortal Coils? This is of particular interest as you have written novels prior to, including a World Fantasy Award nominee in Dry Water. Is there anything to it?
Eric Nylund - I wouldn’t use the terms “transition” or “own project.” I consider everything I write my own project, and I always strive to do something different, and learn from everything I write—even, and especially, the often maligned media tie-in.
My writing has taken a leap forward because of the HALO novels. The audience for those stories has an extraordinarily low tolerance for literary fluffery. They like a good story and they like it told cleanly and efficiently. It’s been an education on how to broaden my writing style to reach a gigantic audience.
Don’t get me wrong: there still a lot of original Nylund style in Mortal Coils. In fact, I learned a bag full of new tricks for this particular series (one of which is how to incorporate in a non-obtrusive way all of human history!).
Jay Tomio – Mortal Coils kicks off a planned 5-book series. What is the current status of the following books, and can you tell us what kind of schedule readers should expect in seeing those books hit shelves?
Eric Nylund - This fills me with a profound sense of enthusiasm and gratitude, and not a small amount of fear when I think about the length and breadth of this project. Yes it’s a five book series, but what hasn’t been mentioned is that each book is well over 200,000 words (twice the length of an average novel). That’s a million words to plot and plan…and write.
As of today I am three quarters of the way through the sequel to Mortal Coils. I’m on schedule to deliver it the Spring, so my readers will have a new book to look forward to next year (and hopefully one per year after that).
Jay Tomio – A 5-book series seems to be a bit new ground for you. How long has this project been in development?
Eric Nylund - I’ve been planning this series for the last three years. That’s not bad considering the aforementioned length and all the research I’ve had to do just to start, which includes but is not limited to: a fair amount of all mythology, religion, and fairy tales.
Jay Tomio – Are video games a storytelling medium? Is it THE storytelling medium for the younger and even young adult demographic?
Eric Nylund - Some of your readers may or may not know that I’ve been working at Microsoft Game Studios for the last nine years as a writer and story consultant to our numerous videogame developers. Video games are definitely a storytelling medium, it’s just a very different medium from screenplays or novels or comic books.
The state of story in games, however, is in flux and undergoing a giant leap forward. I think of story in games akin to the 1920s or 30s era of the film industry when and people were just figuring out how to use color and rapid scene changes and sound in movies.
Is the video game storytelling medium THE favorite of any demographic? Honestly I don’t know. But I do know that a lot of people enjoy video games. I also know a lot of people enjoy movies, too. And I know a lot of people enjoy curling up with a book. They aren’t mutually exclusive activities (although some people will try to tell you otherwise) and I think it’s hard to untangle one entertainment medium from the other and say “this is the entertainment art from that is the current king.” Personally…I like them all—and this might be the most telling detail; namely, that more people today are willing to get their stories from new and different outlets. Will that be at the expense of one media or another? Time will tell.
Jay Tomio – We often get opinions from novelists about their thoughts on prose material that’s derived from othwr media sources. I was wondering what is the outlook of the writer that has sold 2 million copies of a Halo novel coming to a medium where numbers like that would put you in rarified air? Why does there seem to be a distinction?
Eric Nylund - It’s not fair for me to speak for all media tie-in titles and writers, but personally I’ve been given an enormous amount of freedom when writing the HALO novels. I know this may not be the case for other media tie in projects, so I’m guessing that some authors get hassled for not doing original work.
This, by the way, is one of the reasons I didn’t write The Flood. It was too restrictive a project for me to really stretch out and be creative in. I think Bill Ditez did a great job, but it wasn’t something I was comfortable doing. I’ll continue to turn down projects that I can’t do my best on.
Jay Tomio – I want to thank Mr. Nylund for joining us at the Bookspot Beat today!
Eric Nylund - Thanks for asking me about writing for video games and Mortal Coils. If your readers have any other questions or comments they can email me at eric@ericnylund.net
