Introduction:

Guy Gavriel Kay is the international bestselling author of twelve previous Fantasy novels and a book of poetry, as well as a considerable number of essays. He has been awarded the International Goliardos Prize for his work in literature of the fantastic and won the World Fantasy Award for Ysabel in 2008. In 2014 he was named to the Order of Canada, the country’s highest civilian honour. His writing has been translated into more than twenty-five languages.

I have personally followed Guy Gavriel Kay‘s writing since reading his first publication, the Fantasy trilogy known as The Fionavar Tapestry, so am both delighted and honoured to be interviewing him here today.

This interview focuses on his thirteenth and latest novel, Children of Earth and Sky.  Thanks to Hachette New Zealand, I also have two copies of the novel to give away today to New Zealand readers — details will follow the interview.

And now, although it may be Matariki and the deep midwinter here, I’d like to extend a very warm, Aotearoa-New Zealand welcome to Guy Gavriel Kay.

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Interview:

Helen:  Guy, your writing career is both illustrious and enduring, having now spanned over thirty years. Throughout that time, your books have been published as “fantasy”, when arguably what you write is as much history as fantasy. What, for you, marks the boundary between the two and where do they overlap in your writing?

Guy: I think a major component of boundaries, in art, on the map, is that they tend to shift. So I can’t (or won’t?) pin down a clear dividing line. My own angle on this is to push for eroding such artificial literary borders. The energy we spend on sorting a category or slot for a work of fiction is better spent on more important questions: Is it good? How good? Why?

Helen: Your first publication, the Fionavar trilogy, is epic fantasy, while your second, Tigana, marked the shift into alternate history. What sparked the shift in focus?

Guy: Hard to say looking back so far (always be suspicious of artists who offer clear, retrospective explanations of what are often intuitive processes). I knew I didn’t want to write what I called ‘a four volume trilogy’ and I knew I needed to challenge myself (and by extension, readers).

I also thought (this much I know) that fantasy or the fantastic tended to not be allowed to do or be certain things, in literature, and I wanted to challenge this, too. (And that limiting came from both within the genre and without – and still does, actually.)

Helen: Your latest novel, Children of Earth and Sky, is a sweeping story set in the period that marked the rise of what we know as the Ottoman Empire, and in many ways history itself is both the main protagonist and antagonist in the book. How do you make this potentially distancing approach work while still keeping the story engaging for readers?

Guy: Well, first of all thank you for suggesting it does work. But the caveat is – always – that no book or author can work for every reader. You are entirely right to suggest that I try to engage with history itself, not just figures within it, and this involves some of what has been called a cinematic ‘pulling back’ of the camera. This allows us (author and reader) space to set events in a context.

This does not appeal to every reader, though, Helen. Some don’t want to be pulled back, they want ‘total immersion’, identification with the characters, ‘relatability’ to triumph. By using the devices I do, I appeal to some, and raise eyebrows of others. No artist serious about her or his work can avoid this.

Helen: A great deal of Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings concerns the themes of loss, regret, and endings in a highly magical, alternate world. Arguably, the majority of your novels address similar themes in more “realistic” settings derived from history, for example the fall of Sarantium (Byzantium/Constantinople) to the Asharites (Ottoman Turks) in Children of Earth and Sky. Do you agree, or would you point to an alternative focus?

Guy: I’d just say that each book has different themes and motifs dominating. The search for overarching themes in my work is better done by critics and scholars. One writer long ago described my poetry as ‘the poetry of “almost”’ and I thought it was perceptive. That may link to your observation.

I do find myself drawn to cultures and times on the cusp of change, because this offers sharp focus for many elements, and an obvious avenue to drama and tension. Given that – change embedded in the books – I wouldn’t quarrel with the idea that ‘loss’ or the risk of it is involved for some. Tolkien’s sense of loss was nostalgic, though: things were better once. I don’t have that feeling as a given, in my nature or my books.

Helen: Another theme that I have detected in your writing is that of relationships that step outside convention and expectation, or at least what we perceive as being the norm historically. How much of your treatment of relationship derives from your research and how much arises from fantasy fiction’s ability to ask “what if?” and explore otherness?

Guy: Interesting question. I am always on the hunt for stories and elements in history that allow me to plausibly do certain kinds of ‘outside the norm’ people and relationships. This is especially true for the women in the novels, where I want to explore agency for them, but not do so gratuitously, or by superimposing a 21st century woman into the past.

So finding medieval female physicians helped give me Jehane in Lions, the real-life poet Li Qingzhao absolutely gave me Lin Shan in River of Stars, legends about violent, magic-wielding women among the pirates of the Adriatic town of Senj opened the way to Danica in Children. So I’d say the weight, as to your question, tilts that way, in my work.

Helen:  In writing alternate history, usually set in times of war and associated cultural and social upheaval, how do you strike a balance between the often tragic outcomes of history and endings that offer readers some hope and a degree of happiness? Do you feel the need to do so, in fact?

Guy: I’ve actually been informed by the administrator of the Sidewise Award for Alternate History that I’m not eligible for it, because I don’t write it! And I agree! I’m doing something different, and I feel very lucky I’ve been able to do it for so long, with a measure of success and reward – because it would have been so easy for me to fall between every literary crack there is, just about!

I don’t feel any need to ‘steer’ an ending in any direction. Each book imposes its own demands. I do have a view of the world and history that recognizes (and honours) integrity, friendship, love, art … this is why, although the books can carry darkness and violence (as life does) I’m not at all embedded in ‘grimdark’ fiction or anything analogous.

Helen: Finally, I am aware that you sent some time in New Zealand and also Australia during the time you were writing the Fionavar trilogy, to the extent that some of the names of the trilogy’s Paraiko giants are Maori, e.g. Taieri. Have you returned to NZ or Australia since then and do you have any plans for future visits? And to what extent, beyond names, does travel influence your storytelling?

Guy: I’d love to get back to both. I have had discussions with colleagues there, and did have a couple of invitations to conferences and conventions years ago that couldn’t be made to work. Our time in New Zealand was vivid, and remains memorable. I was also part of the runner-up pair in the Whakatane bowling league championships that year, I’ll have you know. I keep forgetting to put it in my resume!

I used to say that some people could evoke olive groves and vineyards while watching the bus rumble past out their window, but that I did better looking out at olive groves and vineyards. That is no longer as true (or necessary), but it remains true that travel can trigger ideas, associations, images.

Ysabel was written because we went back to Provence after ten years for a year. Children of Earth and Sky is very much a product of a return to Venice, and visits to Prague, Dubrovnik, and the Dalmatian coast. Not formally ‘research’ trips, but in a way a novelist who works as I do is always researching on the road.

Helen: I believe I and many others in the antipodean writing and Fantasy-Science Fiction communities will hope that your road and research, either independently or together, bring you back this way again sooner rather than later.

In the meantime, thank you very much for returning to the New Zealand-of-the-interwebs for this interview. It has been a great pleasure having you on the blog and discussing both your writing generally and Children of Earth and Sky.

For more information on the novel, click on Children of Earth and Sky

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And Now — Drum Roll! — for the Giveaway Details (NZ Only):

Hachette NZ have very generously offered two copies of Children of Earth and Sky for giveaway to New Zealand readers only.

The recipient will be drawn from commenters on this interview — so that’s all you have to do: leave a comment on this post and be in the draw to win!

You may leave more than one comment in terms of discussing the interview, but each commenter’s name will be entered into the draw only once.

The opportunity to enter will remain open until 12 midnight, Friday 8 July (NZ time). The draw will be made using Random.Org Integer Generator and posted on the blog on Saturday 9 July. (Go to the top of the masthead to check.)

If I haven’t heard from the winners by 5 pm, Wednesday July 13 (NZ time), I will redraw with the results posted here on Thursday July 14.

The books will be forwarded to the winners by Hachette NZ.

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About the Interviewer: