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May Interviews
by Blu Gilliand Christopher Golden and Tim Lebbon Christopher Golden and Tim Lebbon are two of the most imaginative, prolific authors working today. Both dabble in a wide variety of genres – horror, fantasy, and science fiction chief among them. They share a solid foundation of pure storytelling, a beating heart of character and pace and plot that drives every book, every story, no matter what its about. When these two tremendous talents combine, great things happen. First came the “Hidden Cities” series, books that explored the secret, underground heart of the urban landscapes that fascinate so many of us. Most recently they gave us the first book in The Secret Journeys of Jack London, a series that started as a throwaway comment at dinner and has already grown to encompass the current book The Wild, two forthcoming sequels, and a possible movie. The authors took a few minutes at the end of a whirlwind blog tour promoting The Wild to answer some questions for Horror World. HW: The Secret Journeys of Jack London Book One: The Wild is said to have the flavor of an old "boys adventure" book. How difficult was it to balance that particular tone while keep it contemporary enough for today's Young Adult audience - both boys and girls? CHRISTOPHER GOLDEN: I'd love to make it seem as if there were some strange alchemy involved, but really, it's less complicated than that. We took our love of Jack London and boys' adventure, mixed it with our love of monsters and folklore, and filtered it all through our own modern authorial sensibilities. And yes, it's definitely aimed at both boys and girls, and men and women. We wrote this novel for READERS, not for kids or adults or teens or anything else, for that matter. In fact, that's the way Jack London himself wrote. His works may be mostly taught to high school students, but he didn't write with them in mind, only wrote to be read. HarperCollins has published some really beautiful young adult books - I'm thinking of Clive Barker's Abarat series in particular - and indications are that they worked really hard to nail the look of this book. How involved were you in the design and illustration process of the book? Did you steer them in the direction of the "boys’ adventure" books, or was that coming from their side? TIM LEBBON: I think the original idea for that came from our wonderful editor Jordan Brown, but those early stages were really joint discussions. Once we had Greg on board to do the art, we were so excited at the potential, and everyone –– well, mainly Jordan and Greg –– worked hard to make sure that look worked so well. Chris and I were included at every stage, and our comments about artwork, etc., were always taken on board. To be honest, the whole process from start to finish has been a joy. The finished book is an object of beauty, from the “worn” edges on the dust jacket, to the beautiful foil stamping on the hardback cover itself (and if you haven't seen that, slip off the dust cover and take a look). I've had a lot of limited edition hardcovers done by indie publishers, and this book is up there with them. I read in one of your recent interviews promoting the book that you worked from an outline. How close is the final story to that first outline? Is it harder to take the story in a different direction than originally intended when there are two of you working on it? CG: The first book, The Wild, is probably 90% true to the outline, although of course there were millions of little details we added that weren't in the outline. Certain things were cut because they weren't necessary and other things were altered to fit where the story was going. The second book, The Sea Wolves, is probably only half based on the outline, with the other half being completely new and invented as we wrote it. This is partly because it was a much shorter outline, and partly because after we'd written The Wild and re-read the original Jack London novel, The Sea Wolf, we had a lot of new ideas about what we wanted to do. Now we're about to start White Fangs and the same evolution is taking place. I'd bet only about 20% of that book will be based on the original, brief outline we'd written. Regarding the collaboration aspect of writing these books, how does working with a partner differ than working solo? TL: Chris and I both love collaborating. He calls himself a serial collaborator! Obviously it's a different process, but much of the time I also think it's a better process. Working with someone else means that you get the story and plot hammered out together, missing some of the plot holes that might happen working on your own. Editing largely happens as you're going along, too. And it's just a great pleasure talking about the book as it's written, chapter by chapter, and thrashing out ideas about the next chapter. I never find writing a lonely business anymore. And at the end of the book we have something that neither of us would have written, and which has taken on the good aspects about both of our styles. It's a real pleasure working with someone as talented as Chris, and we've become great friends. I can't imagine us not collaborating on something. This is your fourth book together - what kind of shorthand have you developed in working together so much? How does it compare to when you were writing the first "Hidden Cities" book together a few years ago? CG: Each “Hidden Cities” book had its own progress. The four are very different from one another. With Mind the Gap, since it was initially my idea – though Tim brought a lot of his own ideas to the table and its very much OUR book – I think the dynamic was different. With The Map of Moments, it became a shared inspiration for us. That one meant the most of the four, no doubt, and the result speaks for itself. The last two “Hidden Cities” books, The Chamber of Ten and The Shadow Men, are more about us having fun with our crazy ideas and the situations we invented for the series. But with The Secret Journeys of Jack London, we're back in the creative headspace that allowed The Map of Moments to be written. Even more so, in fact, because we're tapping this strange shared vein of childhood imagination and excitement at the same time we're indulging in some of the same philosophizing about human nature and the animal in all of us that Jack London explored so thoroughly and so intelligently. Speaking of "Hidden Cities", will there be any more books in that series? After the Jack London books, do you have other collaborations planned? TL: The Shadow Men will be out in June, and that might well be the last “Hidden Cities” book for a while. When the Jack London books are finished we have ideas for other YA books ... but that would be telling. We're also collaborating on other stuff – a couple of TV series pitches, a movie idea, and we co-write the screenplay for The Wild for Fox 2000. We also have an idea for a new adult novel we'd like to do sometime, and a comic series. As I said, we're never not collaborating on something. I love the idea of taking an author who has captured an audience's imagination and playing around with his life story. Are there any other authors who would be ripe for this kind of re-imagining? CG: There are definitely a number that we've talked about, but it's too early to discuss what may or may not happen there. The Wendigo pops up in The Wild - are there other legendary creatures you'd like to work with? TL: Only about a million. We're both great fans of myth and legend. I'd love to write about the kraken, but Wyndham and China Mieville have beaten us to it. The well is deep, and we still have a lot of books ahead of us. The Young Adult sections of bookstores seem to be exploding as of late with writers who made their names writing adult fiction - yourselves, Jonathan Maberry with Rot and Ruin, Barker with Abarat, John Grisham, etc. What is it about writing for young adults that's so inviting? CG: Young readers – including teens and pre-teens – embrace books with a passion that many adult readers lose or that has at least been somewhat diluted in many adults. To be able to ignite that passion and imagination and to get feedback from those readers...there's something very rewarding about that. I've written for both adults and for YA readers from the very early days of my career, and I suspect that I always will. What are the differences in writing for the Young Adult market versus more adult material? Do the restrictions make it more difficult? TL: I didn't find it more difficult at all. In fact most of the time I wasn't even conscious of the distinction, other than cutting down on the swearing and avoiding graphic sex. Other than that we were writing what we thought was a great story, and writing it to the best of our abilities ... which is how we approach any book. How will your experiences writing Young Adult fiction impact your adult work? CG: I've always gone back and forth, so I don't think, for me, there's that much difference. It's all story. It's all an attempt to fire up the reader's imagination. TL: What Chris said. I love storytelling in any form, whether it be short stories, adult or YA novels, screenplays ... it's all getting ideas across, and making new worlds. Tell us a little bit about what projects are up for each of you next - together and separately. CG: I've just finished a new novel with Mike Mignola that hasn't been announced yet, and I'm just starting a graphic novel project with Charlaine Harris. Tim and I are writing White Fangs. And I'm fiddling with a couple of my own original books, writing chapters, trying to decide which one will be next. TL: My new fantasy novel Echo City is out in the UK soon, as is the SF zombie novel Coldbrook. I'm writing a new fantasy novel right now with the working title Rumours of Aeon. I've also written a short film which I have a mad ambition to direct, and I'm working on various movie and TV series pitches with my mate Stephen Volk. Other TV and screen stuff here and there ... and I'm hoping that my next novel will be one that I started a couple of years ago. # # #
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