{"id":2072,"date":"2010-10-25T07:00:04","date_gmt":"2010-10-24T18:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/?p=2072"},"modified":"2010-10-25T07:23:38","modified_gmt":"2010-10-24T18:23:38","slug":"the-heir-of-night-guest-author-series-marianne-de-pierres","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/2010\/10\/25\/the-heir-of-night-guest-author-series-marianne-de-pierres\/","title":{"rendered":"“The Heir of Night” Guest Author Series: Marianne de Pierres"},"content":{"rendered":"

Recently, Marianne de Pierres<\/strong><\/a> invited me<\/strong><\/a>, together with fellow Orbit<\/strong><\/a> authors such as Kate Elliot<\/strong><\/a> and Gail Corriger<\/strong><\/a>, to guest post on her blog ahead of Worldcon<\/strong> in Melbourne. Today I am delighted to reciprocate the hospitality and host Marianne de Pierres<\/strong> as part of the FSF Guest Author Series<\/strong><\/a>, posting on the series’ theme of “Why Fantasy-Science Fiction Rocks My World.”<\/em> Welcome, Marianne.<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>F-SF Guest Author Post: Marianne de Pierres<\/h2>\n

I recently had one of my best friends staying with me. I gave her my favourite book, Vermillion Sands<\/em> by JG Ballard, to read.<\/p>\n

Trouble is, she couldn’t. ‘I’m just one of those people who don’t get it,’ she said. \u2018I can’t suspend my disbelief for fantasy and science fiction. It has to be real for me.’<\/p>\n

It was then I realized that I not only \u2018get it\u2019 but I actually can\u2019t live without it. I can\u2019t live without elusive possibilities and brave new worlds. Those things are the colour in my life and the cushion against the mundane. As I recall, that need began with a book about fairies at the bottom of the garden when I was seven years old, and moved on to encompass worlds inhabited by sentient spiders, drug-addicted angels flying between alternate realities and multitudes of other fantastical stories and landscapes. Nowadays, I couldn\u2019t imagine my life without the echo of \u2018other\u2019. It\u2019s as though I live in tandem universes and have the luxury of dipping into either when the need\/want arises. Madness? Perhaps. But an altogether pleasant one.<\/p>\n

Seal says it all:<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=4Fc67yQsPqQ<\/a><\/p>\n

I wonder what it must be like NOT to have such mystery in your life. As a nearly-fifty-year-old I still have an incredible desire to speculate about the future. What kinds of different will it be? What kinds of the-same? And honestly, what profession other than writing science fiction allows you to make up new names, new species, new worlds, new universes? It\u2019s like getting to be all powerful without the responsibility.<\/p>\n

Although, there is still a responsibility, isn\u2019t there? Responsibility to project hope. At least that\u2019s what I believe. Fiction has long played the role of both provocateur and guide in our society and I feel privileged to have a part in that. In fact, I take my opportunities seriously. Even in the darkest moments of the lives of my characters, I imbue them with the strength to endure and the ability to think their way forward. What would be the point of me even writing their stories without hope? What would be the point in reading them? The fact that those characters might be in alien territories, of indeed be alien themselves, just adds a stimulating dimension to the exploration. Imagine fiction without time travel stories? Or first contact? Hardly worth reading, don\u2019t you think?<\/p>\n

About Marianne de Pierres:<\/h3>\n

\"\"<\/a>Marianne de Pierres<\/strong> is the author of the multi award-nominated Parrish Plessis<\/em> and Sentients of Orion<\/em> science fiction series. The Parrish Plessis<\/em> series has been translated into eight languages and adapted into a Role Playing Game. She is also the Davitt award-winning author of the humorous Tara Sharp crime series, written under the pseudonym Marianne Delacourt<\/strong>. In 2011 she\u2019ll release the first of her new young adult dark fantasy duology entitled Burn Bright<\/em>. Visit her websites at www.mariannedepierres.com<\/a>, www.tarasharp.com<\/a> and www.burnbright.com.au<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014<\/p>\n

To see\u2014and read\u2014the other authors who have posted so far in the Guest Series, click here<\/a>.<\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Recently, Marianne de Pierres invited me, together with fellow Orbit authors such as Kate Elliot and Gail Corriger, to guest post on her blog ahead of Worldcon in Melbourne. Today I am delighted to reciprocate the hospitality and host Marianne de Pierres as part of the FSF Guest Author Series, posting on the series’ theme […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2072","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fsf-guest-author-series","category-other-writers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2072","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2072"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2072\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2092,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2072\/revisions\/2092"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2072"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2072"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2072"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}