Strongholds of rock . . . fortresses of the spirit . . . a planet set apart . . .
Citadels can be psychic, emotional, and cultural as well as military, and the wonderfully imaginative contributors to this volume have taken the basic idea and spun out stories in different and often unexpected directions.
Here I chat with contributor Lillian Csernica:
Deborah J. Ross: How did you become a writer?
Lillian Csernica: As far back as I can remember, I've
always loved stories. I still have the copy of the Little Golden Book of Fairy Tales my mother gave me when I was in
kindergarten. In elementary school we made our own books. Like many writers, I
spent a lot of my childhood at the library. Stories have always been important
to me, both for the reading and the writing.
DJR: What authors inspired you?
LC: Ray Bradbury, Tanith Lee, Harlan Ellison, and Agatha
Christie, among others.
DJR: Were there any pivotal moments in your
literary journey?
LC: My first short story sale, Fallen Idol, made it into DAW's The
Year's Best Horror Stories XX. The sale of my pirate romance, Ship of Dreams, was a major career
milestone. The Treehouse Writers Group, the folks behind the Clockwork Alchemy
steampunk convention, invited me to contribute to their convention anthologies.
We're currently in production on the fourth anthology in the series. Writing
steampunk has opened my eyes to the wonders of combining science and fantasy.
DJR: Tell us about your introduction to
Darkover.
LC: Way back when I was in middle school, some of the first
books I ever ordered from the now-defunct Science Fiction Book Club were The Shattered Chain and Thendara House. Sword & sorcery,
telepathy, court intrigue, and space travel all in one fictional world! It was
like opening a box of chocolate truffles and discovering all my favorite
flavors.
DJR: What about the world drew you in?
LC: The Free Amazons grabbed my imagination. Rejecting the usual
women's roles in favor of their own independence made even more sense compared
to the Drylanders' custom of putting their women in literal chains. Darkover
female characters were so much more complex and sympathetic than other women in
the other genres I read then. Miss Marple remains one of my favorite characters
thanks to traits she shares with the Free Amazons. She lives her life on her
terms and she's nobody's fool.
DJR: What inspired your story in Citadels of Darkover?
LC: I knew one way to really upset the men of Darkover would be
to make my main character a woman with a sword. I'm fond of Japanese history
and culture, so it seemed quite natural to create Nakatomi Madoka, a female
mercenary from a long line of samurai. The villain of the story who hires her
has no idea he's about to grab a tiger by the tail.
DJR: How did you balance writing in someone
else’s
world and being true to your own creative imagination?
LC: There were elements of Darkover that I knew I wanted to
include in the story. The Free Amazons, a big matrix crystal, a swordfight, and
the Crystal Chamber itself. I laid out Madoka's wants and needs alongside these
elements, then thought hard about solid story structure. Bringing all of these
together into one story has been one of my most satisfying writing experiences.
DJR: Is there another Darkover story you
would particularly like to write?
LC: I would love to write about Madoka's next adventure on
Darkover, especially if it involves Keepers and matrix technology. Given how
Madoka was raised by a father steeped in samurai culture, she gets the feudal
hierarchy of Darkover, yet she also respects the Free Amazons and their
lifestyle. Darkover has so much going on, it's quite exciting.
DJR: What have you written recently?
LC:
The Badger Epidemic,
the latest short story in my Kyoto Steampunk series.
On the novel front,
I'm editing the first book in The Flower
Maiden Saga, an historical romance series set in Japan of the late 1860s.
DJR: What is your favorite of your
published works and why?
LC: The Wheel of
Misfortune, which appears in Some Time Later, the third Clockwork
Alchemy anthology, and is forthcoming in The Best Indie Speculative Fiction of
2017.
DJR: What lies ahead for you? (Feel free to
expound on your recent and forthcoming books and provide links to covers.)
LC: I've just had a number of short stories come out in various
anthologies:
Storm Warning -- forthcoming in Digital Fantasy
Fiction, Digital Fiction Publishing
Ms. Csernica has published over forty short stories in such markets as Weird Tales, Fantastic Stories, and Killing It Softly 1 and 2. Her nonfiction how-to titles include The Writer's Spellbook and The Fright Factory. Born in San Diego, Ms. Csernica is a genuine California native. History is her passion, jewelry making her hobby, and glass blowing the next item on her Bucket List. She currently resides in the Santa Cruz mountains with her her husband, two sons, and three cats. Visit her at lillian888.wordpress.com.
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