You have given lectures on reading your own
work. What do you find is the key thing writers miss when looking at their own
work?
When they perform their own work, writers tend to think about
the scenes that were fun to write, or bits of research that excited them. They
don't always think about what would make sense taken out of context, what
illuminates the characters to people unfamiliar with the story, or what is most
likely to sell the book to the audience to whom they're speaking. They need to
think as someone coming to the book cold rather than as someone intimately
familiar with it.
What is the one thing you find most
challenging being an author?
I have a hard time switching gears from one project to the next.
I want to work on something straight through until it's finished, which
isn't realistic when you're waiting on an editor's notes or for the proofreader
to get back to you. I tend to fritter away my waiting time,
tidying up my social media sites or fiddling with my blog, instead of just jumping
ahead on the next big project that needs my attention.
In the beginning of The Dangerous Type, it
is talked of the Templars being basically extinct, how important was that to
put at the beginning?
The extermination of the Templars is crucial to the trilogy.
It's the most important change in the galaxy since Raena was sent to
prison. She expected the War to have ended during her imprisonment, but
she never predicted that Humanity would lose so badly after they committed the
Templar genocide. The Templars may have been the first space travelers in
the galaxy (none of the surviving peoples know) and a large variety of widely
used technology -- from translation devices to star drives -- is based on
Templar math. In the subsequent books, the tech is breaking down
galaxywide because no one really understands how Templar tech works.
Do you feel there are now more strong women
roles in books than there used to be and how do you feel that impacts on
today's fiction?
There are definitely more -- and more varied -- roles for women
than there used to be. In fact, I'm interested in the way the woman
warrior trope has morphed. Originally women had to be tougher than the boys.
The lone female, surrounded by men, was always an aberration. She was not at
all like other girls. In answer to that, I wanted Raena to have strong
relationships with other females. The only healthy relationship in her life, in
the beginning, is with her adopted sister. On the Veracity, she serves with a
feline female hacker and a neutral gendered engineer, whose translator speaks
with a feminine voice. It was important to me that Raena have friends who
weren't male and that they talk about things other than men. I think today's
fiction is more realistic because of its variety.
How would you describe Raena?
Raena stands under five feet tall, so people underestimate her.
She's always worn her hair long and straight down her back, so in
the beginning of The Dangerous
Type, she whacks it off with a knife. The uneven result amuses her,
so she leaves it that way. She has several large scars as mementoes of
the rough life she's led. She sees them as talismans that keep the past
from hurting her again. She's fierce in her loves and hates, extremely
loyal, and lethal.
Revenge seems to be one of the themes in The
Dangerous Type, do you think people want revenge on certain situations more
often than not?
I based the framework of The
Dangerous Type on martial
arts revenge movies. The warrior is beaten by the bad guy, then trains
himself up until the climactic battle at the end. Justified vengeance is
always the motivating factor in those stories. In The Dangerous Type, Raena isn't
merely revenging herself on the master who trained her and abused her sister.
She's also avenging the Templars. There are several levels of vengeance going
on.
In real life, I don't think revenge is the answer, but I find it
very satisfying in stories from Harry Potter to Ancillary Justice.
How would you describe the relationship
between Raena and Thallian?
Complicated. She'd never had any power in her life, so she
was captivated by him. The longer she spent serving as his aide in public
and his lover in secret, the more she realized that he was a psychopath.
She wouldn't have ever had the courage to leave him, until her sister was
picked up as a political prisoner. Even after they escaped, Raena felt
that it was only a matter of time until Thallian captured and killed her.
On the other hand, Thallian lives in a galaxy where no one seems real to
him. After she left, he realized that Raena was real. He understood
what he'd lost. So of course he would do anything in the galaxy to have
her back.
Thallian seems like a villain than at times
he seems to have a softer side. Is that an act on his part or does he really
care?
I'm particularly fascinated by the personas people create for
themselves -- and for other people -- and how those personas affect how the
characters are perceived and perceive themselves. The answer to your
question depends on which point of view is telling the story.
What influenced you to write the In the Wake
of the Templars trilogy?
I wrote stories about Raena in the early 90s for a zine published
at MediaWest Con. At that time, Raena's story ended during the War, when
she was imprisoned in a Templar tomb and forgotten. I've always wondered
what would happen to her when she got out, what it would feel like to be a time
traveler who drops back into the lives of people she used to know during the
War. Everything has changed, except Raena's outward appearance.
Could her friends accept who she's become? Could she accept the way
the galaxy has changed? The only way to find the answers was to write the
book. I have NaNoWriMo to thank for getting them finished. When I
approached Night Shade about the first book, I mentioned I had a
short NaNoWriMo draft of the second one. He asked if I could write a
third book and sold the series as a trilogy.
Can you give readers a sneak peek into the
last two books of In the Wake of the Templars trilogy?
I wanted to play with different tropes in each book. The
Dangerous Type is a space opera revenge story centered around two interlocking
love triangles. Kill By Numbers is a Philip K. Dick mind warp, which
deals with the failure of the Templar tech and looks into the nature of memory
and truth. No More Heroes is an interspecies love story set in a
courtroom drama that ends with a time travel attack and rescue, as a venue for
exploring the way a strong leader can influence people and inspire the best in
them. The second and third books will both be out before the end of the year.
Are you making any upcoming appearances?
Thanks for asking! I've got three scheduled so far.
I'll be at Borderlands Books in San Francisco 3 pm . During Sasquan, the World
Science Fiction Convention in Spokane 7 p.m. In October, I'll be reading at
Gamescape North in San Rafael , California 3 pm , as part of the Litquake Festival.
Are there any new projects you are working
on you share with readers?
I have a story in the nEvermore! anthology, which just came out.
Margaret Atwood and Tanith Lee both have stories in the book, so I am
thrilled to be in their company. My story features Alondra DeCourval, the
young witch whose stories have appeared in Wily Writers, Not One of Us, Instant City
Where can readers find out more about you?
The book’s home page: http://lorenrhoads.com/writing/the-dangerous-type/
Loren on Facebook: www.facebook.com/loren.rhoads.5
Loren on
Twitter: http://twitter.com/morbidloren
Loren’s blog: http://lorenrhoads.com/blog
Thanks so much for interviewing me, Shells!
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