Do you write for White Wolf’s Fiction line, their RPG line or both?
Both. I actually have more RPG sourcebook titles than straight fiction, but
even the game sourcebooks often involve some fiction segments, ranging from
short bits of in-character (first person) vignettes to 5,000 word short stories.
The sourcebooks also involve detailed character descriptions, plotting, and
background/setting information, which are the same elements you'd use in writing
fiction, but presented in non-fiction format. These become the building blocks
for those playing the games to create their own interactive stories. I've
worked on sourcebooks for Vampire: The Masquerade, which is a modern-day
Vampire setting, and both sourcebooks and fiction for Dark Ages: Vampire
and Dark Ages: Inquisitor, which are overlapping medieval settings.
What made you choose White Wolf Publishing?
I had been involved with publishing fantasy role-playing games in the past,
but had taken a break from that, and pursued other things. Then Sarah Roark,
a friend of mine who was already doing some freelance writing for White
Wolf, recommended me to the Vampire developer, Justin Achilli
(the developer is basically the editor for a given game line). Justin gave
me a single chapter to do on an upcoming book, and it took off from there.
I think the fact that my friends and I were already writing fan-fiction for
the setting, and had it on our website so the folks at White Wolf could see
it, didn't hurt either.
So it’s not so much I said, "Gee, I want to write for the RPG industry,
who would be the best publisher to pitch myself to?" (although I do know
freelance game writers who do just that, and White Wolf is one of
the bigger and better ones to work for) as I was already very involved in
the Vampire setting on a number of levels. It was just one more step
beyond playing and writing fan-fiction segments, to being part of the creative
team that develops aspects of that setting further for publication, and then
writing fiction for that setting. Really, it's not unlike writing fan fiction
for the World of Darkness, and getting paid for it!
Where do you get your ideas, or what inspires you?
Everywhere. I do a lot of research, and everything inspires me to some degree.
But writing for RPGs, even in fiction, means that you're not pulling ideas
totally out of thin air. You're writing for hire, fulfilling specific requests
from the developer as to what a given book, whether it’s a background
sourcebook or a novel, should be about and what details it should cover. It's
more like writing for an ongoing TV series—there's a ton of stuff that's
already been established, history and legend, what exactly vampires can do,
or werewolves can do, and how their societies operate, and what certain characters
are like, and you need to remain relatively consistent with previous material.
But even within the framework of the developer's outline and the previously
established canon about the setting and its more notorious characters, there's
still a lot of room for creativity. And I like the challenge of working within
that framework—finding ways of explaining how a vampire secret society
works, or pieces of their special mythology, so that it all makes sense, and
in return, I get to shape part of that world.
I do admit to being very character-focused. Good character concepts that are
both interesting and sympathetic, draw you in and get you emotionally involved
with them, are really the hook that makes the places, traditions, mythology,
history, beliefs, mysticism, all the other elements that the Vampire
setting entails, work—if I have a good character, all the rest kind
of falls in place, so a strong, detailed character is what drives my inspiration
on a given project, either RPG sourcebook or fiction. I'm also a big researcher,
especially when it comes to the medieval settings; the more good historical
foundation or real world details you can work into a story, the more plausible
the vampires become by association.
How do you come up with your characters? Are they based on real people
or pure imagination?
Sometimes I don't come up with the characters—they're given to me, often
already developed to some degree by previous writers. This can be a real challenge
if I don't agree with (or even like) the previous interpretations. So I look
for an aspect of that character's personality that hasn't really been explored
in detail yet, or try to find ways to explain just why the character is the
way he is, and see where I can go from there.
But I still get to create a lot of characters from scratch, both in the sourcebooks
and in fiction. I tend to look for characters that fulfill what I think are
needed roles in a given book. If there's a previously existing character who
can fill that role, who can do what needs to be done, I will use him; if not,
I will create one who will. For example, in Caine's Chosen: The Black
Hand, our job was to delve into this para-military vampire sub-sect that
was highly secretive, feared, and mystical. My fellow writer and I decided
we needed a narrator character, who was both a relatively new member of this
sect and curious about its history, so that his "research" would
be the way we could present the group's background. His first person voice
(and the voices of other characters he interviewed) could not only provide
the reader with necessary information, but also narrative flavor, the intimate
point of view that only a member of this sect could convey.
In Dark Ages: Toreador, I needed to make Alexander, an ancient vampire
recently deposed from his throne, a real threat to my heroine, a much younger
and relatively powerless vampire named Rosamund. His obsession with her was
set up in the previous book in the series—a lot of author conferences
took place, and it helped that the author of the previous book was a friend
with whom I collaborate frequently. I drew on a lot of material on abusive
and borderline personality disorders in order to portray how he could be both
fascinating to her and immensely dangerous, not just because he was so powerful,
but because the way he perceived reality was very twisted and selective, so
that he could justify doing the most horrible things based on his love for
her.
What books do you have planned for the near future?
I'm currently working on a fiction project for White Wolf's new Vampire:
the Requiem setting. It will come out in 2005, and that's about all I
can say on it, because of my non-disclosure agreement. I'll be happy to let
you know more when there's more I can reveal, but right now anything about
the new setting is very hush-hush.
When is/was your most recent book release title and date?
My most recent book came out in May 2004. I have a short story in the fiction
anthology Clan Novel Saga: End Games. The book is a compilation of
previously released Vampire novels, but my epilogue story "Déjà
Vu" is new material, and ties up a few loose ends with characters from
those novels, as well as tying the novel series to more recent events in the
setting's timeline.
Can we have a sneak summary?
Sure.
Jan Pieterzoon, a vampire of some age and experience, has always believed
that Gehenna, the prophesied the Armageddon of vampire mythology, to be simply
a myth—and he has sought to quash these foolish beliefs and false prophecies
for centuries. But now events are happening in the world that will rock his
rationalist beliefs to the core of his being: Could Gehenna in fact be real?
The fact is that White Wolf literally destroyed its entire game world
setting in early 2004 by actually letting Gehenna happen. And Jan is about
to learn when your long-time enemy is more truthful with you than the superior
you've trusted for centuries, things may well be worse than you could have
ever imagined.
Do you have any book signings/appearances in the future?
Nothing formal planned. I recently attended the Forum Con in Copenhagen, Denmark
in July 2004, but that's really more an excuse to go meet and play games with
some of the European folks I've been corresponding with for years. I will
also be at Darkover Grand Council in Timonium, Maryland, over Thanksgiving
weekend.
What do you feel makes your books unique or stand out from others in your
genre?
If you look at my genre as "fiction based on a role-playing game"
that in this case happens to be about Vampires, what I try to do
is to emphasize character over game mechanics, and present a plausible chain
of events based on character motivations. A lot of writers of game-based fiction
seem to feel it's necessary to give you all the background, tell you what
the powers are and what they do, sometimes in the middle of the action, which
I find jarring and disruptive. I'd rather just tell the story—if you
are a gamer who knows, yes, he's using four dots of the Presence Discipline
here to bring everyone in the room to their knees as he enters, fine. But
if you don't, that explanation really isn't necessary. You see the characters
go their knees (and some are clearly fighting the impulse), and you know this
very old vampire is making them do it, and that's enough. So what I try to
do is make the game-related aspects of what's going on transparent, so it
all feels natural and avoid interrupting the flow of the story.
If you look at the genre as "vampire fiction that happens to be based
on a published setting called the World of Darkness," then what
I think makes it interesting (and challenging) is that as a writer I have
this detailed well-established fictional universe to work with, which was
designed specifically for a wide variety of stories to be told in it. There's
this rich background of a complex vampire society, with their history, political
factions, philosophies, abilities and weaknesses, long-running conflicts,
and a cast of strong, dramatic characters to play with, that have been developed
by a lot of different writers over a number of years. I don’t have to
invent a vampire society from scratch, or their abilities, or even the underlying
conflicts that give rise to the story I'm telling—that's all there,
already laid out for me. And I love taking that setting, the characters that
people already know, and bringing all those elements together and telling
a good story with them.
Do you have a special subgenre? What is it?
I guess writing fiction based on role-playing games is its own little subgenre.
That it happens to be about Vampires and not, say, Werewolves
or Mages or Dark Elves, is less a factor (although
I admit I've always been very fond of vampires) than the fact you're writing
in this pre-existing universe, that has definitive rules and conventions that
are known to a large part of your audience. It's not unlike writing fiction
based on a television show or comic book character in that respect. The challenge
is to be true to this setting, that a lot of your readers are immersed in
and know very well, and also tell a good story, and make it approachable even
to readers who don't know the game world setting at all, but happen to like
vampire stories. And you're also telling the gamers that this is what the
stories they create when playing the game can be like. You're giving them
inspiration, and sometimes even more details, on the game universe that they
can use themselves.
Do you have a favorite place that you like to write?
I started out being able to write anywhere, anytime if I had a spiral notebook
with me. Now I confess I'm used to doing all my writing on the computer keyboard,
so any place I have a keyboard—at my regular job over lunch, or at home
at my desk (which happens to be in my bedroom) works for me.
In what order do you write? (Beginning to End; combining parts; in random
order; development cycle).
Since these books are produced under write-for-hire contracts, there is definitely
a development cycle, which includes pre-established deadlines that have to
be met. In the case of Dark Ages: Toreador, it was book #9 of a 13-book
series, with a continuing story arc, so I already knew who my main characters
had to be, and I had a two-paragraph synopsis of what had to happen in the
book to fit in with the rest of the series. I also had ongoing contact with
all the other authors working on the series, and either published copies or
manuscripts of the previous books. In particular, I collaborated closely with
Myranda Kalis, author of Dark Ages: Brujah that came right before
Toreador, since she was introducing my main protagonists and setting
up the situation my book had to deal with.
So based on what the editor wants from the book, I then present a story outline
to him, which he then makes comments on and approves, and then I try to follow
it. Outlines help keep the story on track and focused. I mostly go from beginning
to end, because things develop as I write—subplots clarify or vanish,
characters take on new significance for particular reasons, or their roles
in the overall arc change as the story unfolds. So what happens later on really
is built on previous scenes, previous dialogue. But there are some scenes
that are just so vivid in my mind, I write them no matter where they are in
the story arc, just to get them down and to prime the creative pump. Sometimes
they end up in the story exactly as I wrote them at the time, but usually
they get changed along the way, and sometimes tossed out entirely. But I find
it helps to write them anyway, because it helps me keep things fresh, and
think through where things are going.
What do you feel is/isn’t being done to promote authors?
White Wolf is the second-largest publisher of the pen-and-paper (ie,
non-electronic) role-playing games, but RPG publishing is a niche industry,
and as fiction publishers go, they are a small press. So there's definitely
a limit to what they can do in terms of promotion, and what they tend to promote
is the brand, the game line, not the individual writers. And while there are
some gamers who do pay attention to who wrote a given sourcebook or novel,
for the most part, the audience is buying the book because it's #9 in a novel
series, or because it covers a segment of the game universe they want to know
more about, or think they could use in their own games. It's setting, the
World of Darkness, Vampire: the Masquerade, etc., that is
the selling point, not which of fifty or so possible freelancers actually
wrote the book. Also, aside from the novels, RPG books are rarely written
by a single author—most of the sourcebook titles have multiple writers
contributing to the final book. So promoting the authors doesn't really enter
into the marketing equation—though they've never complained when authors
did some promotions on their own.
I can't really comment on the publishing industry as a whole.
In what kind of venues can we find your books?
You can still get some of them, like my novel Dark Ages: Toreador,
and the game books that are still in print from White Wolf's website
(www.white-wolf.com) or www.amazon.com. Sometimes the big bookstore
chains, like Borders, will have the novel (look for the series novels, at
the end of the science-fiction section), but rarely the game books. Gaming
stores will carry both, or will order them for you.
What do you feel is the best aspect of the Publishing Industry? What do
you feel could stand to be “tweaked” so to speak?
I love the sheer variety, although I confess I sometimes find that also a
bit overwhelming. I research a lot of really eclectic topics, so it's great
to find a book on something obscure that happens to be just what I need for
a current project. Still, there could be even more variety yet—the people
making the decisions on which books will be published and which will not are
those who sign the checks, not those who love publishing good books. Although
the same is happening in many industries—movies and television, for
instance. Investors run the show, not creators, and I don't know if that's
something that can be easily tweaked.
On the other hand, if anything can change that, it will be the application
of new technologies that mean it simply costs so much less to produce and
distribute a new creative work, whether it's written fiction or a video or
motion picture, that huge investments simply aren't necessary anymore. And
those technologies do exist.
With the rise of the E-book publishers and small press, do you think they
will be the wave of the future?
It's too soon to tell. But I think the internet has been a tremendous boon
to small press and other niche markets—because you can reach your special
audience at very minimal cost. People with the most obscure hobbies can find
each other, no matter where they live geographically, and form virtual communities
around their common interests. There's the financial infrastructure of PayPal
and Ebay that has revolutionized the internet marketplace; you can literally
find anything for sale if you look for it, and it's relatively easy and safe
to make purchases online. So there's a huge potential for E-books, especially
for titles which may not appeal to the big publishing houses, because they're
after titles that will sell millions of copies, not thousands or hundreds.
They're just looking at really mass-market. But for books and authors that
aren't in that huge Stephen King/Nora Roberts/Michael Crichton/J.K. Rowling
mass-profit range, or that appeal to the niche markets in particular (vampire
romance stories, for instance), E-books may be an alternative. But they still
have to reach that market, and there's the challenge. I haven't studied the
E-book market in depth to determine how well it's doing that yet.
How do you think the E-book industry has affected the Publishing industry?
I honestly don’t think it has, not yet. Not the industry as a whole,
it's simply too massive, and E-books haven't noticeably cut into market share.
The E-book industry has, however, allowed more writers to be published and
get their works read by an audience, and that can't be a bad thing!
Is there anything else you would like to add that we haven’t covered?
Since I didn't get a chance to do so when Dark Ages: Toreador was
published, I would like to gratefully acknowledge the support, patience and
encouragement of my fellow writers and co-conspirators Myranda Kalis and Sarah
Roark, without whom this project would have been much more difficult and a
lot less fun; the patient efforts of my editor, Philippe Boulle, for helping
trim this monster down to size; and the inspiration of Jacqueline Lichtenberg,
Jean Lorrah, and a veritable host of other writers whose advice and example
taught me so much about the craft of writing.
You can find out more about my work, and that of my writing partners Sarah
and Myranda, (including our fan-published Vampire fiction) at our website:
www.wyrdsisters.org.
