Esther Friesner Interview
Award Winning SF and Fantasy Author on Writing
Award winning author Esther Friesner recently sat down with Suite101 to talk about inspiration, and amongst other things, the follow-up to Sphinx's Princess, titled Sphinx's Queen.
Why do you write?
I write because it's what I've always done, for as long as I've enjoyed reading or hearing stories. I "wrote" my first piece at age 3, dictating a poem to my mother. I still remember it because it was such a weird little poem. It started out being about a happy bunny rabbit, and rhyming, and ended as free verse with the bunny fighting and destroying some sort of magical villain. Did I mention it was weird? Yup. [g]
Finding ideas for stories has never been a problem for me. They're everywhere! Finding the time to get them all down on paper. . .that's the problem. But it's so satisfying when I get the initial inspiration and am -finally- able to tame it to the point where I'm successfully communicating it to readers. It's a lot like telling someone else about the really fabulous dream you had last night, except when you try putting the wonder of it into words, you fall short. Ot isn't enough to tell your audience "You had to be there" when you want to be a writer. You have to be able to -take- them there.
What's the one invention/political policy you'd like to see realised in your lifetime?
I'm not sure. The self-feeding cat? (I'd say the self-cleaning litterbox, but we've already got that technology. And no, those cat food kibble-dispensers do not count until they can also dispense gooshy food, cat treats, bits of whatever fascinating stuff the Two-Legs are having for their dinner, and clean up the whole mess afterwards.)
If you could be any fictional character for a day, who would it be, and why?
I'd like to be one of the resident mice at Redwall Abbey. Have you seen how well those little squeakers get to eat?! However, I would like to be said mouse on a day when Redwall is not under attack by varmints, thank you very much.
Five books that will always stay with you...
Three Men In A Boat by Jerome K. Jerome
Any of the books of Pogo cartoons, by Walt Kelly
The Cat who Went To Heaven by Elizabeth Coatsworth
Modern British Poetry (And I don't know the edition, or the compiler, but I grew up with it and it's full of the best stuff! Read "The Bells of Heaven" without crying, I dare you.)
I'm going to leave #5 as a wild card because, sorry, there are too many contenders left, jockeying for inclusion, and as a good BookMom, I refuse to play favorites any more.
Has the Internet significantly changed writers, for good or bad?
It's changed me for the better, that's for sure, by putting some much bizarre information at my fingertips. This has been especially helpful when writing historicals.
I suppose you could argue that the bad thing about it is the tempting distraction it presents, making many a writer blog her time away when she could be working on books and stories, but...it's a free country, and writers who want to avoid writing have always existed and have always been able to find an excuse for doing this.
Why are you looking at me?
What are you working on right now, tell us more!
Right now I am working on the sequel to Sphinx's Princess, which is called Sphinx's Queen. Both are YA novels about young Nefertiti. Like young Helen of Troy from Nobody's Princess and Nobody's Prize, she's a renowned beauty, but there so much more to her character and her life.
I've been having a lot of fun researching ancient Egyptian culture for these! (Did you know that ancient Egyptians named their dogs but not their cats, except as "Cat" and "She-cat"? It makes sense. Most cats don't come when called, do they? Okay, mine do, and even without the sound of the can opener, but I digress.) Sphinx's Princess will be coming out in September 2009 and the sequel is set for 2010, which means. . .I'd better get back to work on it! [g]
Esther Friesner won the Nebula Award for Best Short Story of 1995 for her work, Death and the Librarian, and the Nebula for Best Short Story of 1996 for A Birth Day. Her novelette, Jesus at the Bat was on the final Nebula ballot in the same year that Death and the Librarian won the award. In addition, she has won the Romantic Times award for Best New Fantasy Writer in 1986 and the Skylark Award in 1994. She lives in Connecticut with her husband, two children, two rambunctious cats, and a fluctuating population of hamsters.
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