Jacqueline Carey: Q & A and Essay

    
Note: This is an oddity in that it is not an original interview conducted by BookSpot Central. This Q&A was actually conducted by The Romantic Times in May of 2001, and the essay following it in March 2002 (again in Romantic Times). When I asked Ms. Carey if we could reshowcase an article of hers, she generously offered to allow us to host these two items as well to keep them online for her readers. BSC would like to thank Ms. Carey for allowing us to do so.

    
How did your writing career begin and what inspired KUSHIEL’S DART?

    
Jacqueline Carey - When I was in high school, I kept a novel the way other girls kept diaries! It went through several generations of characters and was quite awful—but I persevered. After college, I spent about 10 years honing my skills writing and publishing short stories, essays and nonfiction, all the while plotting to develop a vast, gorgeous epic filled with romance, intrigue and danger. KUSHIEL’S DART is that book.

Oddly, it was the setting itself which came first, but I was compelled by the idea of the fictitious country of Terre d’Ange, luxuriant, sophisticated and decadent, existing in medieval Europe. The story itself crystallized around my heroine, Phèdre. As a courtesan and a spy, she’s uniquely suited to make the most of the dramatic potential of this exotic setting.

    
What elements, time periods, mythologies, etc. came into play when you were creating the world KUSHIEL’S DART is set in?

Jacqueline Carey - Foremost among them is a mythos I created drawing on Judeo-Christian tradition: Blessed Elua, a wandering deity who was conceived in the womb of Earth of the commingled blood of Yeshua ben Yosef, or Jesus, and the tears of Mary Magdalene. The eight angels who abandon Heaven to become his Companions—of whom Kushiel is one—do so out of love, not rebellion. On mortal soil, they become enamoured of the pleasures of mortality; hence, the nation of Terre d’Ange is begotten.

Terre d’Ange is based on a version of medieval Provence, around 1200 AD as Phèdre’s story unfolds. However, this is a world in which a great many fantastic ‘What ifs’ have occurred! The sophisticated D’Angeline society has a Renaissance sensibility; in other cultures, an early medieval awareness prevails, and still others owe a debt to classical antiquity. That’s the joy of writing historical fantasy: All of history is fair game.

    
Your heroine Phèdre sounds very unique. What attributes define her character?

Jacqueline Carey - Although she’s drawn to danger and the darker side of desire, there’s a tremendous amount of hope and optimism in Phèdre. Most heroines in fantasy triumph by virtue of wondrous gifts of magic or martial skills. Not Phèdre. All she has is her wits, a facility for language, and the capacity to never, ever surrender to despair.

Oh, and one surly, handsome Cassiline Brother, who does wield a mean blade.

    
There seems to be a strong love story between Phèdre and Joscelin at the foundation of the story. How did you strike a balance between the romance and fantasy elements? Was it difficult to interweave the many different threads?

Jacqueline Carey - For me, these elements are two sides of the same coin. High fantasy should resonate with all the passion of a romance, and a great romance should have the sweeping scope of an epic. I envisioned the story as a seamless whole, and the course of Phèdre and Joscelin’s relationship follows the path of the story, with all its attendant challenges and obstacles.

Of course, their story doesn’t end with KUSHIEL’S DART. There are two sequels in the works. While each book stands alone, the trilogy forms an overall story arc and Phèdre and Joscelin’s love is the crux on which everything turns.

     In Terre d’Ange, sunlight filters through the olive groves, grapes ripen on the vine and lavender blooms in fragrant clouds. It is here that Elua and his Companions made their home, for where else did the people welcome the wandering deity in song, opening their arms to greet him as he crossed the fields? Nowhere; nowhere else. And so it came to pass that Blessed Elua dwelt here for a time, and gave unto his people one commandment.

     Love as thou wilt.

     Thus was a nation begotten; luxuriant, sophisticated, proud, passionate, decadent. The D’Angeline people, in whose mortal veins runs the blood of fallen angels, are all these things. Love takes many forms, and in Terre d’Ange, all is permitted.

     And yet, even here, Phèdre nó Delaunay is a rarity – an anguissette, Kushiel’s Chosen, marked by a scarlet mote in her left eye. Among Elua’s Companions, it is Kushiel who administers the cruel mercy of justice, and it is Phèdre’s dubious gift to find pleasure in the depths of pain.

     As a writer, I adore her. It would be difficult to conceive of a more unlikely heroine for an epic fantasy, or a greater creative challenge. But that’s part of the joy romance and fantasy alike represent: triumph over impossible odds. When it works, it’s glorious.

     Sold into indentured servitude and trained as a courtesan and spy, when Phèdre is betrayed in Kushiel’s Dart, she finds herself in possession of a secret that will destroy Terre d’Ange unless she can prevent it. She has only one ally; Joscelin Verreuil, the acerbic warrior-priest assigned to protect her. Deadly with a sword and beautiful to behold, he is also a Cassiline Brother who has sworn a vow of celibacy and despises everything Phèdre stands for.

     Of course, that changes by the end. One of the things I wanted to do in this series is to explore the idea of love as a divine force, capable of acting upon the world and all who dwell within it. While a strain of dark sensuality permeates the books, it’s love born of courage, loyalty and self-sacrifice that emerges transcendent…

     …only to face new perils in Kushiel’s Chosen, when Phèdre accepts a challenge from the Machiavellian villainess Melisande Shahrizai to find a traitor at the heart of the realm. But the stakes are higher than she knows, and what begins as a sophisticated game of intrigue turns into a desperate race to unmask a fatal conspiracy.

     La Serenissma, Hellas, Illyria – the realms through which Phèdre’s adventure unwinds are as familiar as places from a dream, half-remembered upon waking. The Kushiel trilogy is an alternate history in the broadest sense of the term, reworking the canvas of the past with sweeping strokes to blend what-might-have-been with what-never-was. Each is a stand-alone novel, written within an overall story arc to be concluded in a forthcoming third volume, Kushiel’s Avatar. They contain all the elements of epic fantasy that I love: intrigue, high adventure, swordplay, sweeping battles and feats of impossible valor. There are strange gods, exotic lands and religious mysteries.

     Indeed, what magic is present derives from a simple premise: that the mythos that governs Terre d’Ange is true in a literal sense. When the will of its gods is made manifest, those mortals whom they have chosen must answer to it. Courtesan or no, Phèdre’s destiny is written in the scarlet mote in her eye, and as she is Kushiel’s Chosen, she is the instrument of his justice. And the warrior-priest Joscelin, sworn to the service of Elua’s Companion Cassiel, is destined to be her consort and protector, even at the cost of his own vows.

     Throughout it all—intrigue, high adventure, sublime pleasure—love’s greatest obstacles are those that come from within. These are rich books, densely plotted, with cunning gambits that take the length of the novel to play out. Yet at the core, it’s the human element that drives the story as Phèdre and Joscelin struggle to make sense of their relationship; the conflicting desires that push them apart, and the undeniable passion that draws them together.

     All of this, while the fate of a realm hangs in the balance.

     It’s not easy being a god’s chosen – glorious destinies carry a price. But in the end, the redemptive power of love pays for all.
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_{Jacqueline Carey is the bestselling author of the critically acclaimed Kushiel’s Legacy series of historical fantasy novels and The Sundering epic fantasy duology. Her next novel, Saint Olivia, is scheduled to be published this May, and to be followed by the seventh installment of Kushiel’s Legacy, Naamah’s Kiss, in June.}

The essay and Q&A were originally seen in Romantic Times are represented here with the permission of Jacqueline Carey. All rights remain with her.

You can visit Ms Carey at her website www.jacquelinecarey.com