The Write Thing

Rachel Aaron is the prolific author behind the Eli Monpress series of fantasy novels. Write-Thing has reviewed the first three books, The Spirit Thief, The Spirit Rebellion and The Spirit Eater. All three are highly recommended! Rachel has graciously spared some of her time to answer a few questions, as well as some exclusive release dates and hints about her upcoming books!

W-T: Rachel, firstly, thanks for talking to Write-Thing!

Rachel: No worries!

W-T: Now, the Chronicles of Eli Monpress has grabbed our attention as an excellent, break-out fantasy series. Three books in one year! That’s a mean feat by anyone’s standards. How did you manage that?

Rachel: At the risk of ruining your opinion of my mad writing skills, I didn’t actually write all 3 books in one year. Orbit, my wonderful publisher, likes to release books in sets if they can.

It’s a good call, the publisher can use the ad budget for all three books at once (which gets a lot more bang out of each buck), readers get sequels quickly, and the author gets three books out at once! Of course, I went and ruined it by writing a five book series which everyone now thinks is a trilogy, but that’s on my head.

In real time terms, my agent sold The Spirit Thief toward the end of 2008. I wrote the next two books between late 2008 and 2010. This meant I spent nearly two years in the pre-published limbo with three books under contract and nothing on the shelves, but it was actually pretty fun. I got to spend my first two years as a professional writer focused only on the books rather than books and promotion, and since all three came out at once I had a chance to go back to The Spirit Thief and add in stuff to foreshadow events that happened in The Spirit Eater like I’d planned it all along. These were both fantastic luxuries that were well worth the 2 year wait to see my book in the store.

W-T: Two more books, eh? Do you have rough release dates for the remaining two books in the series?

Rachel: The release dates for Books 4 and 5 are being pushed back to 2012 to go along with a re-release of the first 3 books in omnibus format. I’m getting new cover art, new quotes, really a second release. This is awesome for me, but I feel terrible making my fans wait another whole year for the end of the series.

However, books 4 and 5 will come out right on the heels of the omnibus, so when it comes it’ll all come at once and you can wallow in Eli to your heart’s content! Stick with me, I promise it’ll be worth the wait. You’ll get some beautiful books and what I hope will be a very satisfying, climactic ending.

W-T: We’ll have to hang on until then! The series originally seemed to be very much about Eli. The other characters have started to have stronger stories. How’s this shift happened?

Rachel: The Eli novels have always been just that, Eli novels. He’s always been the star of the show, but as much as Eli remains the core that holds everything together, it seemed only natural to me that the focus should move to other people sometimes, if for no other reason than to give the poor reader a break from Eli’s relentless self promotion.

By the time I’d finished The Spirit Thief, I knew that every character needed their own book where their crisis would be the focus of the plot. The Spirit Thief is an introduction to the world, The Spirit Rebellion is Miranda’s book, The Spirit Eater is Nico’s, Book 4, which was The Spirit War but might be retitled, is Josef’s book, and the final book, which I’m writing now, is all about Eli.

Of course, each book features all the characters in almost equal measures, but I really wanted everyone to get their chance to face the knife test. Writing character is the most fun part of writing for me, and so of course I would structure the series around that. Stick with what you’re good at . That said, the center of the books is, and always will be, Eli. He’ll get the last word, make no mistake. Probably the last dozen words, knowing Eli…

W-T: What’s influenced you in writing this series?

Rachel: A lot of things, but mostly fighting anime (which I’ve been a huge nerd about since high school), witty BBC comedy, my absolute addiction to trashy 80′s and 90′s fantasy, and the five billion times I watched the movie The Sting, which I consider to be the best movie ever made (followed closely by Ocean’s Eleven).

When I sat down to write this book I’d already tried to write two very serious fantasy novels, one I finished, one I didn’t. I’d also read a lot of very serious, epic, issue-driven fantasy, and I was getting a little bored. What I really wanted was something dramatic that was still light and fun to read. Something that skipped along and built unapologetically to enormously dramatic climaxes.

This was what I set out to create when I started the novel that became The Spirit Thief. From the very beginning, the Eli novels have been about fun, fast fantasy. Fantasy that makes people stay up all night because the book is simply too much fun to stop reading. Those are my favorite kind of stories to read, and that’s my ultimate ideal with Eli. Pure, unadulterated fun that sucks you in.

W-T: Your fantasy is very ‘clean’ – nobody swears, there’s no graphic torture or violence, despite dealing with some pretty serious topics. How did you balance that out?

Rachel: You are actually the first person to notice this! Yes, I did this very deliberately, and it was a pain. There were several points where I had to get very creative, but I’m glad I did. You see, I keep the novels clean for two reasons.

One, my mom reads these books, and while I will curse in front of my mother and most of the dirty books I’ve read were stolen from her library (she was a big Mercedes Lackey fan), I somehow can’t bring myself to curse in novels I know she will read. Makes no sense, but there it is. I don’t understand it either.

Reason two is more rational. While the Eli series is for adults, I wanted the books to be accessible to anyone who wanted to enjoy them, no matter their age or who was censoring their reading. I would have loved these books as a kid, and while my parents didn’t ban books, other kid’s parents do. Libraries won’t carry them, or won’t let people under a certain age check them out.

Every part of a creative work involves a decision, and keeping my books clean wasn’t one I made lightly. It all comes down to the reader. When you add cursing and serious gore to a novel, you limit the readership. I want everyone to read my books, so I decided that, unless cursing or extreme blood explosions were necessary to the scene I was trying to write, I wouldn’t put them in. So far, I’ve never come across a scene that needed cursing, so it hasn’t gotten in. You can look at this as self censorship, but I prefer to think of it as making my work as accessible as possible. I want to feel at peace telling everyone in the world “you like magic, sword fights, and charming thieves? YOU WILL LOVE MY NOVEL.”

W-T: So, do you swear in real life?

Rachel: Yes. Drop in on me when I’m doing PVP in World of Warcraft and you’ll hear language that would make a sailor clutch his chest in horror.

W-T: Is Eli growing up?

Rachel: I hope so. I’m trying to make him. For all his frivolity, complete irresponsibility, and general disrespect for authority, Eli holds some unshakable moral values. You can’t keep that sort of dichotomy up forever. Sooner or later you’re going to run into a situation where you have to stand up for your morals or betray them, and that’s what adulthood is – not just knowing right from wrong, but taking responsibility to make the right thing happen. With each book, Eli has to do that more and more, and hopefully that’s making him grow up. He’s still a wise ass, though. That will never change.

W-T: He’s an interesting character. Where did he spring from?

Rachel: The idea of a thief named Eli who wanted a bounty of one million gold actually came from my old friend Steven’s high school D&D character. I didn’t even know Steven at the time, and I didn’t know jack about the character Eli other than the basics, but the idea of a thief who dreamed of a million gold bounty, more money than anyone had ever had, grabbed me and ran. After that, my Eli developed almost overnight, emerging with his own voice to talk to a door. Everything else in the series fell into place around that.

W-T: I’ve enjoyed the world you’ve built immensely. The idea of universal spirits is fascinating. How did that come about?

Rachel: I’m a very nerdy person, and one of the nerdy things I do is make up magic systems. I don’t actually remember when or how I got the idea of giving everything a spirit, but I know I’ve had it kicking around for a very long time, and once I had my charming, magical thief, I knew I’d found the perfect home for a magical system built around persuasion. Also, the idea of talking furniture never fails to crack me up. I’m so glad you enjoy it!

A world where everything talks has spawned some truly great sayings around my house, though the best example came from my Devi, my beloved editor at Orbit. It was during edits for The Spirit Rebellion. We were working on how to make the villain more despicable when Devi told me I needed to “Torture more doors.” I did, and it worked perfectly. I now have this quote hanging above my computer.

W-T: What’s your writing routine like?

Rachel: I’ve shifted a lot over the years, but for the last two books I’ve fallen into a pattern that works really well. First, I set aside at least 4 hours for writing as early in the day as I can. The later it gets, the more tired I am, the harder it is to be good. That said, life gets in the way a lot, so I take what I can get (writing is way easier if I stay flexible about it). The only kicker is that the hours have to be uninterrupted. I’m the kind of writer who sinks into her work, and every time life pulls me out, I have to sink back in, which can take forever. So I sink in once and try to stay there as long as I can.

Four hours is enough for me to write 3000 – 4000 words depending on how awesome I’m rolling. I used to only manage 2000 words in the same amount of time, but then I stumbled on a trick. Before I write anything, I get a notebook and write a quick, short hand description of what I’m going to write. I write what happens, the order in which it happens, and if there’s dialog I write out the exchanges in the most bare bones way I can. Basically, I’m drawing a sketch of the scenes for the day.

This lets me spot trouble bits early and work them out in short hand on notebook paper when mistakes are easy to fix rather than meandering through it in the actual writing where I end up deleting paragraphs until I find the right way to go. In fact, I’d say the vast majority of my new found speed as a writer comes from the rather bland realization that knowing what you’re going to write before you write it will make you write faster, and the more you know, the faster you will write.

That’s the secret that doubled my word count per day without increasing the time I spend writing. Anyone looking for a way to go faster is welcome to use it. I hope it works the miracles for you it bestowed upon me.

Also, I write in a coffee shop where the wireless is password protected, and then never get the wireless password. This means I can’t get on the internet, and people are watching me, which keeps me honest. Both of these are vital to Rachel productivity. I’m an easily distracted animal.

W-T: What can we expect from the last two Eli Monpress books?

Rachel: Well, I’ve written book four and I’m well into book five, so I can safely say things get a lot more serious. Not the characters, they’re still the same people, but the situations get more serious. Josef especially has to step up to the responsibilities he’s been running away from as a wandering swordsman, and Josef has always been the backbone of the Eli gang. When he gets serious, Nico and Eli have to come along and bear with it.

Book four is also the longest Eli book, and book five’s most likely going to match it. This is only natural since the cast has grown and the situations are much more complicated. That said, book four is as fast paced and action packed as any of the Eli books, more so because I’m done with exposition at this point.

Book five is even crazier since it’s pretty much all climax for every major problem that’s been building in the Eli world since the beginning. So while the books may be longer and more serious, I can safely say that if you liked the first three Eli novels, you are going to LOVE the last two. It’s nothing but shit hitting the fan, questions getting answered, and characters doing awesome things. Book four is my favorite book I’ve ever written, and book five is pretty much just more of that. It’s going to be amazing.

W-T: Do you have any plans after that? Will we remain in the same world, or go elsewhere?

Rachel: The series is pretty much done after book five. There are more stories I can tell about Eli, Josef, Nico, and the rest, but I’ve been in the same world for a long time now and I’m ready to do something new. I’m not going to say that I’ll never write another Eli book, but for now I’m ready to stretch in new directions. I’m a young writer at the very beginning of her career. I have so many books to write, it’s not even funny – fantasy, scifi, YA, urban fantasy, even some main stream stuff. Time to get cracking!

W-T: Fantastic! It sounds like you’ve got a lot of great places to go. Thanks for talking to Write-Thing, it’s been great talking with you!

Rachel: Thank you so much for the thoughtful questions. I had a really great time. Again, thank you for having me. People like you are why I write.

Rachel Aaron’s website can be found at http://www.rachelaaron.net. Her first three books, The Spirit Thief, The Spirit Rebellion and The Spirit Eater have all been reviewed here on this site and are published by Orbit Books. For more on her books, keep an eye on Write-Thing or subscribe to the RSS feed using the butons in the top right corner!