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Meet the Empress: an interview with Karen Miller...
01/05/2008 . Source: Chris Hyland 
Author Karen Miller yacks with Chris H. about the joys of writing the first novel in her new Godspeaker trilogy, why the magic system in Godspeaker is quite different to her Kingmaker/Kingbreaker duology, and how she likes to cocoon herself in a kind of warm, dark bubble so the outside world doesn't intrude on her writing. Buy Empress in the USA - or Buy Empress in the UK  Karen Miller's latest novel, the first in her new trilogy will be published by Orbit this summer. I've chatted to Karen before about her previous duology, the Kingmaker, Kingbreaker series which I really enjoyed. She kindly agreed to let me question her some more, about Empress and other things...
Welcome back, Karen. Needless to say, there are still virtual cookies available! :)
Thank you, Chris, and thanks for asking me. As for the virtual cookies, well, they're the only kind I can eat, so thanks! *g
Quite alright! Could you tell us a little about Empress? (I like to be original in my opening questions)...
Well, Empress is the first book in the Godspeaker trilogy (my first trilogy, yikes!). Actually, I tend to think of my stories in acts, like plays, so it's Act 1 in a 3 act play.
It's the story of a young girl from an exceedingly harsh background, who discovers the power that lies within her and rises to greatness against enormous odds. It's the story of a young man, who's also been touched by power and greatness. It's about his relationship with her, and her relationship with the god they worship ... which isn't at all a kind or benevolent deity. It's about family, and lacking family, and making your own family, and faith, and how people can sometimes be blinded by their beliefs. It's about power and ambition and the sacrifices we make to get what we want, and how more than just you pay the price for those sacrifices.
It's set in a world that's very different from the world of the Kingmaker, Kingbreaker books. I had a lot of fun researching of a variety of ancient cultures, to get a feel for that kind of total otherness.
Of course, Empress was called Empress of Mijak in your native Australia – this is the second time the name's of your books have been altered! Do you mind at all?
Not in the least. The other 2 titles in the trilogy remain the same -- so that's nice. *g*
And what can we look forward to in the concluding volumes of The Godspeaker series? How far written are the two books?
Both books are done. Bk 2, The Riven Kingdom, was released last December here in Australia, and bk 3, Hammer of God, is due for release here in June.
As for what you can look forward to ... well, trying to avoid spoilers ... the landscape widens to include a new location and a new set of characters with their own problems, in bk 2. The characters from bk 1 are also there, but the focus shifts. And then in bk 3, two worlds collide. *g* More angst, families, trouble, dilemmas, consequences and action. Various chickens come home to roost.
The magic system in Godspeaker is quite different to the Kingmaker/Kingbreaker duology and religion also plays a much larger part – was this a conscious move away, and what risks were involved?
Not conscious insofar as I made up this story to deliberately get away from the world of Lur. It's just the story that wanted to be told next. So I guess the differences grow out of that. These are brand new people, in a brand new environment. I did work hard to make sure I wasn't repeating myself, because that is a danger, always, when you're writing. Also, I did want to have a bit of a play with some religious themes, in this trilogy, and that wasn't the focus of the first two Kingmaker, Kingbreaker books. So yes, the religious themes in this trilogy are definitely a conscious decision. And I guess the magic grows directly out of that.
I feel there are huge risks in this story, and in this trilogy. For a start, Mijak is such a hugely different world from a lot of mainstream fantasy, and what I've done before. And it's not a pretty or comfortable world, either. It's dark and violent and confronting. But that's the way the story went, so I did have to take a deep breath and follow it. Hekat's a confronting character, too. The world of Mijak isn't as user friendly as the world of Lur, and so that's a huge risk in terms of upsetting readers. I knew it when I was writing it, and frankly I've scared myself stupid with this. Even though early feedback has been good, I'm still terrified. I tend to live my writing life in a perpetual state of terror -- I'm always convinced I haven't done a good enough job.
There's more lightness and warmth in bks 2 and 3 of this trilogy, with the new characters coming in. But that doesn't alter the fact that bk 1 is pretty damned full-on! *g* And there are moments all the way through the trilogy that aren't for the faint-hearted or the squeamish.
But I think that if you're not risking something, if you're not challenging yourself, as a writer, then ultimately you're short-changing readers. And I guess I also wanted to show that I can sing in more than one key.
Do you like Hekat? Would you, if you met her, I mean.
Gosh, I don't know.
As a writer, I get very invested in all of my characters. I tap into aspects of myself for each and every one of them -- a bit like an actor does. For an actor to successfully play a role, be it the hero or someone with more shades of gray, he or she needs to find that tiny part of themself that coincides with that character. And I think it's the same for a writer. In many ways, we're actors playing a one-person show with a huge cast. So when I'm being Hekat, I need to really be her, be inside her, make her part of me and me part of her. And since she's not a person who's filled with self-loathing, then I can't be full of self-loathing when I write her. So, when I write her, I really like her and I completely understand who she is and where she's coming from.
Of course, given what she gets up to, that could say some very disturbing things about me ... *g*
If I met her as she is, without knowing her from the inside ... I don't know. Probably I'd find her problematical.
You were, in 2007, the UK's best selling début SFF writer: before that, you also did excellently in Australia -- how has international bestseller-dom affected you?
In terms of every-day living, it hasn't affected me at all. I still have to clean out the kitty litter tray. *g*
From a writing perspective, while I am thrilled beyond the telling, in truth it's scared me a lot. A great many people loved the first two Kingmaker, Kingbreaker books and wrote to tell me so, and also to say that they'll buy my next books too. And I find that makes me feel hugely responsible for not wasting their money. As a writer, I feel it's important that I write the stories in my head, in the way that I feel they should be written, but at the same time I really, really don't want to disappoint the people who have made this journey possible for me in the first place -- the wonderful book-buying public. I know that I can't realistically hope to please all of the people all of the time, but emotionally that's a little harder to deal with. I just don't want to disappoint, and that's a chance with every book I write. Not only with content/theme, but also with execution. There's a truism that says art's never finished, it's only ever abandoned, and that is true to an extent. But no kidding, I'm still writing/polishing a book to the bitter end, when my editor has to prise the galleys out of my cold, clutching fingers. I have even been known, in the past, to ring up the typesetter and dictate a final line!
It's hard to move on, sometimes, knowing that if I only had a little bit more time I could just make it ... better.
What are your all-time favourite five books? What book is, in your opinion, the most under-rated/under-read book of all time?
Wow. Okay. In no particular order:
The Game of Kings, by Dorothy Dunnett
The Long Winter, by Laura Ingalls Wilder
The Grand Sophy, by Georgette Heyer
The Warrior's Apprentice, by Lois McMaster Bujold
Jingo, by Terry Pratchett
Not an under-read book, but an under-read author: Reginald Hill, who writes British police procedurals. I know he's popular, but I also know a great many people haven't read him. They might have seen the tv adaptations of his series (Dalziel and Pascoe) but his stuff is so exquisitely written I often have to stop and have a moment of heavy breathing. *g*
Also, Kage Baker. She's got an amazingly inventive mind, fabulous characters, a wicked sense of humour and a terrific series in The Company books. I'm a huge fan, and I wish more people were aware of just how great she is. She does wonderful things with time travel, history and corporate politics.
Dave Duncan. He writes swashbuckling adventure fantasy better than just about anyone I know. He's a beautiful stylist, he has a dry wit and a sly twinkle in his eye. Most recently, his Alchemist books (The Alchemist's Apprentice, The Alchemist's Code) are playing with an alternate reality Venice, complete with magic, mayhem and mystery. They're delighful. I can't recommend this writer highly enough.
If you could co-write with one author ever – alive and dead --, who would it be and why?
Even if I could, I wouldn't. I'm too bloody-minded and selfish to ever consider inflicting myself on another writer.
You've recently written a Stargate novel (a series I really need to watch more of at some point...): could you tell us a little about the novel, and how this came about? What other SF&F TV and films do you enjoy?
The most recent Stargate novel I wrote was 'Do No Harm'. That's due for publication in May 2008, I believe. Do No Harm is set at the end of season 3 (I'm a super fan of the earlier seasons). It's a stand-alone adventure that also has a connection to one of my all-time favourite episodes ever, A Matter of Time (from season 2, in which we get to learn a few very significant things about Jack O'Neill, and have a tragic ending, which I love!). It also introduces a one-off character from season 7, who for various reasons has become a bit of a fan favourite. I know I loved him, which is why I included him. Anyhow -- Do No Harm is the story of what happens to SG-1 and Doctor Janet Fraiser when they find themselves in the middle of a medical crisis on a planet that Washington deems a high priority target. It's also about Jack and how he has, or hasn't, dealt with what happened in A Matter of Time. It was a lot of fun to write, but it was also very hard, because it involved actual science. There's a reason I write fantasy novels -- I don't do science! So this was a killer. But I think it works, and I think it did me good to really push myself, in terms of the scientific content. Plus I just have the most fun playing in that sandbox, with those characters. I love them.
As for other media sf I love, well, in no particular order: Star Trek (all the incarnations), SG Atlantis, Babylon 5, Farscape, New Dr Who, new Battlestar Galactica, Space Above and Beyond, Life on Mars, Star Wars, Firefly, Buffy, Angel, Torchwood, the first Matrix film, the first 2 Terminator films, the first 2 Alien films, Bladerunner, The Abyss, Strange Days, Independence Day ... just off the top of my head. *g*
What curious writerly quirks/rituals do you have? I had a friend who maintained she had to eat quiche often, but I think that was just a (strange!) excuse. Or is it in fact a writer's secret that I have stumbled upon and must keep secret?
If the quiche thang's a secret, nobody told me. *g*
Mainly, I like to write in the dark, with a low light burning and movie/tv soundtracks playing. Basically I like to cocoon myself in a kind of warm, dark bubble so the outside world doesn't intrude. Which isn't to say I *can't* work under other conditions, because I can and I have. But when I get to call the shots, that's how I like to write.
I'd like to thank you very much for taking part, Karen! :) (I should also add that, when I sent the questions out to Karen, she very kindly put up with the debacle of unattached files, files that were incompatible, and the fact that this part of the interview I've just added on, because I forgot to thank her!) Thank you. ;)
Chris Hyland
© Chris Hyland 2007
Chris's great fantasy and science fiction blog can be found at http://thebookswede.blogspot.com where he reviews, does give-aways and author interviews. Not just of the authors that everyone is going on about, but new ones too.
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