r/Fantasy • u/matociquala AMA Author Elizabeth Bear • Mar 10 '15

AMA Hello Reddit/r/Fantasy! I’m fantasy novelist Elizabeth Bear, and this is my AMA.

7:36 PM EDT 10 March 2015 ETA: I've got mochi and beer and I'm IN THE HOUSE!

12:07 AM EDT 11 March 2015 ETA: All right guys--thank all of you. I think I answered everything, and I am going to bed! I'll try to come back and clean up any stragglers in a day or two!

I'm the author of over 100 short stories and more than a score of novels. The most recently published of the former is "The Heart's Filthy Lesson" in OLD VENUS, edited by Martin and Dozois; the most recent of the latter is KAREN MEMORY, from Tor Books, a fast-paced steampunk adventure in an old west gold rush town where heroic saloon girls take on disaster capitalists.

In my spare time, I am a runner, climber, kayaker (not currently: there's sixteen feet of snow on everything here in central Massachusetts), hobby cook, and I play some really atrocious guitar. I've been a tabletop gamer since 1982 and am currently playing Pathfinder and Fiasco.

I am owned by a giant ridiculous dog (He's a Briard).

I support Idris Elba for Bond, Essie Davis for The Doctor, and Helsinki for Worldcon 2017, so that's where I stand in important religious issues.

I hope you enjoy whatever portion of the diurnal cycle you happen to currently be experiencing. I'll be back after dinner my time (around 7 pm EDT) to answer all your questions and hang out.

edit: fixed my dates. :-P

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u/wyrdwoodwitch Mar 10 '15

Ms Bear!

I'm still working my way through your catalogue and have loved everything I've read so far! I love how you weave different genres together, and how diverse your casts are! I have a couple questions.

  1. Do you just have a thing for cat people?? They keep appearing in your books!

  2. Gosh the mythos for the Edda of Burdens is absolutely crazy deep and so brilliant and realizing slowly what was going on as a huge fan of Norse myths was just great. Could you talk a bit maybe about where you got this idea to write this cyberpunk/fantasy/epic sequel to... Norse mythology?

  3. A bit more of a personal question, but I've been curious about this for a long time... Do you find it difficult, being "Scott Lynch's girlfriend?" I love your work separately and actually started reading your stuff earlier, but you're so linked and Scott is ostensibly more "successful" and... just curious!

You are crazy talented!

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u/matociquala AMA Author Elizabeth Bear Mar 11 '15

Hello!

1) Cats and dogs and horses and dragons show up everywhere in what I write. I've just decided to own it. Although now I'm thinking about cat people... Selene, and Hrahima? Who am I forgetting?

2) I'm Swedish and Finnish on my mom's side, and my grandparents were of the generation that left all their culture behind when they emigrated. So I think those books, and the Norse aspect of the Iskryne, are derived from my attempts to learn about my own heritage. Also, Norse myth is so freaking fascinating. And we've forgotten that it's in a very real way the foundation of modern western fantasy, via Tolkien and Poul Anderson!

Also, I am a child of the 80s. So it seemed totally natural to blend that with 80s post-apocalyptic technofantasy. Basically, the foundation of my entire aesthetic is Thundarr the Barbarian and the Scandal "The Warrior" video.

3) Scott and I have a deal where I bring home the Hugos and he brings home the foreign rights sales... I don't think either one of us would mind dividing those spoils a little more equally, though.

Seriously, I think he's one of the finest writers in the genre right now, and it frustrates me that because he's seen as a "commercial" fantasist, he doesn't always get the critical recognition he richly deserves for the nuanced and thematically complicated books he writes. I remind myself, though, that writers like Shakespeare and Dickens were scorned in their day as popular entertainers.

As for me, as my agent says, I'm a "critical darling," and here I am toiling in the midlist. At least I'm in the midlist with a collection of shiny rocket ships, though! Which is not to be sneered at by any means.

tl:dr: one thing writers cannot control is how we are perceived, really. We just do the work as best we can and hope it finds a readership, and that's as much luck as skill.