If you haven’t read her books yet, I recommend them highly: They are about the performers and owners and patrons of a glam-as-fuck nightclub in a country where fascists are slowly taking over. This interview contains no spoilers for either book.

How did you get into reading fic?

How does anyone? A friend in middle school printed out a Lord of the Rings fic and showed it to me on the bus. But how I got back into reading fic as an adult… My strong suspicion is it had a lot to do with my roommates at the time, who were avid Tumblfolk and readers and writers of fanfic. Suddenly I was surrounded by adult-type people who were unabashed about linking me to their favorites. I started off with a lot of Super Husbands and Stark Spangled Banner (s/o to silverlance_vine, my gateway drug) and then moved on to some epically long slow burn Johnlock—this was back in the days before we all grew weary and disillusioned with the BBC’s Sherlock.

The details of my return to the fold are sketchy. I just remember that suddenly I was reading fic again. Lots of it. Long ones, too. It was after college, when I was semi-employed and single and sort of depressed and could just spend days lying on a horizontal surface reading slow-burn Inception AUs.

What do you love best about fanfic? (And no copping out and doing louche Billy Crudup about it.)

The good stuff actually feels like it’s about real people, not *~characters*~. Good fanfic does character-building work that the original property failed to complete. Hollywood strives so hard to make things palatable to the widest possible field of money-spenders that it avoids almost any specificity. And specificity, in my opinion, is the key to not just good character but good writing.

Because fic writers are writing for their own joy, or the joy of a particular fandom, they can afford to hone their focus and make choices, which is a luxury the writers on The Avengers aren’t really afforded. A summer blockbuster can’t make choices. Inevitably, choices alienate a portion of your audience. But if you’re writing for free, for yourself, you can do exactly what you want. And that gives the best fics depth. It makes them vibrant and unique.

What are the main fandoms you read in?

So my bookmarks have got a couple of fics each from a smattering of fandoms. I read Brideshead Revisited when I can find it, a little bit of Star Wars: TFA. Hannibal. James Bond. Dorothy Sayers. There’s also this INCREDIBLE Mad Men WIP that I didn’t realize was unfinished until I hit the last bit and realized it wasn’t an ending. Is there any more bitter experience than that? (It’s They Do Look Brighter by hautboist, if you want to torture yourself.)

Okay yes, and MCU. SO. MUCH. MCU. Stucky in particular, but I love a good Tony Stark story. I just…love Tony Stark, okay? He’s a broken mess who’s trying to put himself back together and it manifests in so many amazing ways…

And then, there’s Inception. It’s not one of my favorite movies of all time. It’s fine, whatever. I got zero shipping vibes off any of the characters, didn’t really seek the fic out, and didn’t even realize Arthur/Eames was a thing. But it is a THING and the good stuff is GREAT.

Also reading the fic has kind of made me ship it, because now when I watch Inception I’m like “yes, they are married/banging/smoldering exes/whatever. The subtext is hidden very deeply in the film, but I have read the tie-in novels.”

Do you ever read fic in cases where you’re not familiar with the original property? And if not, have you ever gotten into a book or show or game just because you wanted to read the fic of the thing?

Totally! Well, I totally read the fic even if I don’t know the property. I haven’t really gotten into many properties because of fic, with the exception of Hannibal. Which I also got into because of the suits.

I went back through my bookmarks to answer this question and turned up fics for Stranger Things and Supernatural. Just one or two from each of them, so I wouldn’t call them my main fandoms. But they’re good stories friends have sent me. Familiarity with the property can lend another layer of complexity to a fic, but I’m definitely someone who will read stuff I don’t understand as long as the characters are beautifully drawn and pull me along.

How has reading fanfic influenced your writing? And if you’re willing to, can you name some fics or authors in particular that have influenced you or that you frequently return to?

Okay, so to be fair, I started to pursue writing seriously long before I got back into fanfic, and I was going to say I didn’t think there was fic that had influenced my writing but that’s a god damned spurious lie. When I was in the thick of writing the first draft of Amberlough, I was basically doing nothing but work in a coffee shop, write fiction, scroll through Tumblr, and devour fanfic. Also reading books—like, the nonfiction kind and the published, original characters kind.

Maybe a year went by and I was still working in a coffee shop, Tumbling, writing, and reading. More nonfiction, now, because I had realized nonfiction could improve my writing vastly (this after reading an early draft of Seth Dickinson’s The Traitor Baru Cormorant and wondering how the hell Seth knew about things ranging from naval battles to brain injuries, before realizing the answer was probably research).

While reading a lot of pop history, I realized the genre is sort of a subset of fan fic, really. If somebody decides to write an entire book about a person or place or event, they’ve got to be really into it. And the enthusiasm (read: obsession) often shows in their writing.

Around this time, I had started collaborating with my dear friend Sam J. Miller on “Making Us Monsters,” a gay epistolary time travel story about WWI trauma and medical experimentation that is essentially RPF. A collaboration facilitated by Tumblr, actually. And by scads of nonfiction about interwar Britain, which led to in-depth, fannish research on Siegfried Sassoon.

In fact, I’m (finally) about to list those fan fic authors whose work influenced me, and I’m going to include some of those nonfiction authors. Y’all are fans, even if you like to cloak your fandom in the weeds of academia and biography.

• D.J. Taylor’s Bright Young People
• Max Egremont’s Siegfried Sassoon
• I’m also going to throw Evelyn Waugh in here, because that man wrote Friend Fic. Seriously. You read Vile Bodies and tell me it’s not a novel-length friend fic, and we will have words.
• I love Speranza’s Brooklyn Boys MCU fics. Who doesn’t? But I got into their writing because of their perfect  Brideshead Revisited fix-it fics: “Sebastian Revisited” and “Elysium.” It wasn’t until much, much later that I read 4 Minute Window, and not until even later that I realized it was the same author. And not until EVEN LATER that I realized they’re a huge deal in fandom. I was just over in my aunt and uncle’s basement reading their niche elegiac post-war epilogues and thinking I’d made an amazing discovery.
• The Steinway!Verse by toomuchplor is my go-to comfort read. It is perhaps my favorite fic of all time. It is #relationshipgoals. It’s also a Commitment. I don’t even know how many words it is. I don’t care. And I will admit that I have not read the whole thing through ever again after reading it the first time. Parts of it are just too painful. But the parts that are soft and sweet and funny are so good that I forgive it the scenes of heart-rending agony.

I just realized that in that enormous chunk of text, I failed to answer the part of this where I say how fanfic has influenced my writing. One of the things it taught me is that readers don’t need nearly half the explanation authors think they need to give. If I can read a story from a fandom I’ve never encountered and catch on to what’s happening, why do I need to give so much exposition in original fiction? As long as the mechanics of the world are clear and the characters have strong motivations, you’ve got me!

Fic taught me to center character and emotional arcs, because those are the hooks that will haul most readers through anything. It taught me compelling stories can be slow, quiet, and strange. It taught me you can write whatever you fucking want and someone out there will love it. And I think it taught me a lot about how not to write sex.

What are some of your favorite tropes?

Hurt/comfort. Domestic fluff. Slow burns, up to a point. AUs, though the coffee shop doesn’t usually do it for me. I love an academic AU: high school, college, conservatory. And…I don’t know if this is a trope, exactly, but when authors ask questions about aspects of the story never addressed in the original property, especially if they’re like, “boring” things. Talky stuff. Reporters and politics and security analysts. The logistics of fantasyland. Aaron Sorkin’s take on the Ministry of Magic. That kind of thing.

Is there a particular fic you’d give to a novice wanting to dip their toe into the fanfic ocean?

Harry Potter seems like a great starting point to me, honestly—most people have read it or seen the films. And there are HP fics of every stripe. Recs from me? If you’re into Harry Potter and like West Wing or In The Thick of It, We Are Young (I’ll Carry You Home Tonight) by Femme (formerly femmequixotic). If you’re into Harry Potter and cozy mysteries and the English aristocracy, Lust over Pendle.

But really I’d say it depends entirely on their fandoms. Like, if someone came to me and said, “I watched Jurassic Park and I want more!” I’d be at a loss. But I might know someone I could ask, “what are the good Jurassic Park fics?” and they’d tell me. Because fandom is big and diverse and generally friendly and everyone wants to share their favorite fics.

Which really just means I’d rec Steinway!Verse, or Ain’t No Grave, or 4-Minute Window, no matter what your fandoms are.

What’s a recent fic you really loved?

None of these are like, posted YESTERDAY, but I recently read and loved Known Associates, by thingswithwings (longlisted for the Tiptree!) and Ain’t No Grave, by spitandvinegar. It also looks like Speranza posted a new fic TODAY (as of writing), so I will be strolling on over to AO3 when I’m done here.

The post Authors in Fandom: An Interview with Lara Elena Donnelly appeared first on Reading the End.

With that said, I had a pretty terrific reading year in 2017. I encountered some new instant favorites, books I loved so much I shoved them at everyone I knew and immediately requested them for birthday or Christmas. I love books and I love reading and I love y’all, so thanks all the way around for being great.

Monstress, by Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda

Never shall I give up my fondness for monster girls. Monstress is a weird and wonderful comic about a girl with special powers who finds herself at war with the whole world. The art is unfathomably lovely.

Iron Cast, Destiny Soria

Two best friends create magical illusions at an illegal night club in Boston, just before Prohibition begins. Iron Cast features found family to the max, including a best-friendship that’s more central to the characters than their romances (which is rare as hell), and some genuinely cool magic. If you’re a reader on the hunt for more one-and-dones in YA, Iron Cast is for you.

Borderline and Phantom Pains, Mishell Baker

I haven’t read much urban fantasy, but Borderline made me want to change that. Mishell Baker’s borderline protagonist is a double amputee and survivor of a suicide attempt, recruited to work for a mysterious organization called the Arcadia Project. Creepy fairies abound (my fave), plus lots of details about the nitty-gritty of cognitive therapy for BPD.

The Woman Next Door, Yewande Omotoso

Contrary to popular belief, I do not like books solely based on their having French flaps. But French flaps help. The Woman Next Door is a lovely, quiet exploration of the aftermath of apartheid in South Africa: the story of two women whose enmity softens into something that is not quite friendship but no longer exactly hostility. It’s also a story about complicity in oppression that doesn’t insist upon redemption. I loved it.

Testosterone Rex, Cordelia Fine

I mean, obviously. Cordelia Fine remains brilliant, and she is so good at making complicated science accessible to a layperson. My big complaint with Testosterone Rex is that it doesn’t talk about non-cis people hardly at all. However, it makes many brilliant arguments about the role hormones like testosterone play in gender and gendered behavior. Read it, and read Delusions of Gender.

White Tears, Hari Kunzru

I said it when I read it, and I’ll say it again now: What the entire fuck. White Tears is a story about white appropriation of black culture, but it’s also a terrifying ghost story and a wild wild ride. It has one of the scariest endings I’ve ever encountered in a book. It’s brilliant and bananas. Get on it.

Amberlough, Lara Elena Donnolly

Amberlough is a secondary world fantasy (without any magic) about the performers in a cabaret confronting the rise of fascism in their country. If you can’t face that sort of a thing during the Trump presidency, it’s absolutely fair play. But if you are up to it, Amberlough is a strange and lovely book, a fantasy novel for lovers of the darkest bits of Cabaret.

Thorn, Intisar Khanani

One of the truly lovely things that happened this year was Intisar Khanani’s book deal with HarperTeen. Soon you’ll be able to get Thorn in a shiny new edition, and you should. It’s a retelling of the fairy tale “The Goose Girl,” a story that’s sad but hopeful, a story about good people trying their best. Intisar Khanani remains one of my favorite fantasy writers currently working.

Ninefox Gambit and Raven Stratagem, by Yoon Ha Lee

I admit that I was fearful of reading Ninefox Gambit, which I’d heard was a particularly dense bit of science fiction. But I’m so glad I pressed onward with it. Ninefox Gambit might be my actual favorite book of the year; I liked it so much that I ran straight out to the library to get Raven Stratagem. It’s about an imperfectly loyal soldier who has to share a brain with a famously brilliant, famously murderous general from the past. I loved it so much. I want you to love it, too.

Song of the Current, Sarah Tolcser

Such an excellent YA adventure novel. Caro takes to the river with a crateful of mystery cargo in the hopes that she can save her father from prison. But when the cargo turns out to be a boy — a snooty-as-hell boy, but good in a fight — she finds herself enmeshed in more plotting and violence than she’d bargained for. And look at that cover!

Starfish, Akemi Dawn Bowman

In YA as in adult fiction, I tend to gravitate more towards SFF stories. But Starfish won me over. It deals with sexual and emotional abuse in families in a way that I’ve encountered virtually never, and it’s exceptionally honest about the impact of growing up with an abusive parent. I loved Starfish, even more so because the author was able to take critique of some of the language in her book, and make a change for future editions.

Jane, Unlimited, Kristin Cashore

If you’d asked me what I expected as a follow-up to Kristin Cashore’s Graceling series, the last thing I’d have said would have been “Rebecca as a choose-your-own adventure, by way of Diana Wynne Jones.” But that’s what I got: Five separate stories in five separate genres, each most wonderfully stranger than the last.

I wish you strength in the New Year, and all the glorious books you can gobble up. What were some of your 2017 faves?

The post 2017 Reading in Review appeared first on Reading the End.

Cyril De Paul is a half-hearted spy for the government of Amberlough, one of four loosely affiliated governments in Gedda. His target (and lover) is Aristide Makricosta, a louche and lovely smuggler and emcee at the Bumble Bee Cabaret. And Cordelia Lehane (don’t you love everyone’s name?) is a dancer at the Bee and a small-time drug smuggler looking to improve her lot. All three of them get caught up in politics when Cyril’s cover is blown and he has to turn spy for the conservative (read: fascist) One State Party that’s threatening to gain control over all of Gedda.

One good thing about Amberlough, a book I enjoyed tremendously and hope you will all read so that the sales are good and we get a sequel,¹ is that it’s one of those books you can tell pretty quickly if you’re going to like it or not. As with Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, if you find the aesthetic to your taste after the first few chapters — even if you are thinking “there are a lot of geopolitics happening here” — you’re going to like the book. Donnelly lays out the geopolitics early and then gets on with the aesthetic, which I have seen described most accurately as “vintage-glam spy thriller.” Here are the first four chapters for your delectation and delight.

Another A+ thing about Amberlough is its high degree of sex positivity. Cordelia sleeps with who she wants to sleep with and refuses to feel guilty about it, and the book never asks her to. Aristide and Cyril bang on every available surface and sometimes even have slightly kinky sex, which like — this is weird, but I’m not sure I’ve ever encountered two characters having fun, matter-of-factly kinky sex outside of a romance novel? I rarely enough encounter scenes of characters having fun sex at all outside of romance novels, to be honest. What gives, literature? Amberlough is making you look bad!

And now for a spoilery warning. If you watched Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and had a minor nervous breakdown in the movie theater along the lines of oh my God what are we going to do what are we going to do oh God what are we going to do (not that I did ha ha no), be prepared to feel something similar when you get to the end of Amberlough. Things are not looking swell for our heroes at the end of Amberlough, although the nice thing is that you’ve spent enough time with them to have a pretty fair sense of how thoroughly each of them is going to fuck shit up for the Ospies after the end of the book. But still. Rogue One minor nervous breakdown warning.

In short, I loved this book, and I can’t wait for you to read it too! Get on it so you can come back and talk to me about it!

The post Review: Amberlough, Lara Elena Donnelly appeared first on Reading the End.