Sherwood Smith was a writer I discovered soon after I sold goose girl as a young adult book and wanted to see what else was out there in that genre. I was perusing my library's YA section and was drawn to Crown Duel just by the cover. And loved it. And had to go back to the library immediately (like in a hurry just as it was closing) to get the sequel, Court Duel. These are a fun duet of fantasy novels that you'll rip through and utterly enjoy, and she's written many others including the popular Wren series. Let's meet the lady of the week!
Me: What did you think being a writer would be like when you were younger? How is the reality different?
SS: I never thought that what I was doing (stories and drawings about another world) was the same as "being a writer." In other words, the books I loved to check out of the library (I was, and am, a voracious reader, beginning a book-a-day habit at age eight, and continuing that all my life--except when Real Life interferes) all came about by god-like grownups, which had nothing to do with my little messes that adults thought a waste of time and worthy only of the trash. At thirteen I began typing up, and sending out, novels written as a compromise between what I figured "they" would publish, and what I really wanted to read. My motivation was because by then the careers for women--excuse me, ladies--were firmly directed toward housewife, nurse, teacher, or secretary, and I did not want to be ANY of those. By then I'd discovered that books were written by actual human beings, so, why not me? I thought published authors had it made in the shade--I could own a big house full of rescue animals, where friends could stay, and I could write and never have to wear shoes again. As if!
So my mom let me have her old manual typewriter, and I saved my babysitting money (fifty cents an hour!) for postage. There was a lot I didn't know, including how to rewrite, so I didn't actually sell anything until I was in my mid-thirties. In between i did many things, like live in Europe, work some horrific jobs and some cool ones, get married, have a kid. We decided I would stay home for our first child's early years, but as soon as she started school I had to get a job. So I had those five years to try to sell something. Well, the irony is I did sell something the very year she began kindergarten--but the reality of advances (very modest money paid in increments over very long waits) meant I had to get the full time job anyway, and that meant getting up at four a.m. in order to get those three precious writing hours each day, from four to seven. The rest of the day I was teacher, wife, and mom.
I read Crown Duel and Court Duel as separate hard covers, and in paperback they're combined. Could you tell us how that came about?
I mentioned above writing what I thought "they" would accept, and what I loved. How I tried to find a compromise. When I was 17, I got the idea for Wren, and blithely began writing it. I decided I would make a world, not discover one, like S-d. When I write an S-d story, it "feels" like I'm a watcher at the window. I can't change anything that happened any more than I can willfully make myself younger or change our bank account from disagreeable and ongoing debt into comfortable wealth. It just is, and all I can change is how I write about the events. This new world would be fun, and it also would not break the "rules" I perceived in children's literature at the time.
See, in those days, you didn't have fantasy stories for kids in which kids from this world could go Over There and stay;. They always had to come back, grow up, etc. Or, the ending I loathed with intense passion, they were enchanted to forget all their wonderful adventures, or to think "it was all just a dream." Bleccch! The stories also had to be very short (mine tended to be long).
Sooo…anyway, I sent Wren out, it almost sold, thank goodness it didn't, I put it away, tried it again in my mid-thirties when my first child was old enough for school.
I was going to finish the four Wren novels as I'd envisioned them all those years ago, but about the time I was finishing the third Wren book I thought it might be fun to just try one of the S-d stories--see if anyone would possibly like them. Try one "in disguise." So I picked one out of the main story-line that could stand on its own, typed it up one summer, and changed little details--which was easy, since I'd used S-d for a model for Wren's world, which was kinda "S-d lite." Like Eidervaen was in Wren's world Erev-li-Erval. Easy changes. The Hill Folk existed in both worlds, so no problem there. Gave it a title (few of the handwritten ones have titles; this one was just "Mel's story in Remalna") and sent it in to my editor.
Well, it worked. But the editor wanted it split into two (those rules were still in effect, one of which was "YAs won't read long books") and I left out the Flauvic scene to keep it more G than PG.
Crown Duel turned out to be far more popular than the Wren stories, so for the Firebirds edition of Crown Duel I changed everything back to the way it was supposed to be. Including putting it together back as one book.
Can you tell us one of the best things you've ever heard from a fan?
Oh, easily the best things are the enthusiasm, the questions about the stories beyond the story.
Do people in your neighborhood know your profession? How do acquaintances react when they learn what you do?
Few know, and most are indifferent, sometimes faintly hostile or derisive. You have to remember I live in Southern California where it seems that every third person wants to be something in the film industry. Saying "I'm a writer" in this town probably translates in other towns out to be "I'm a pretentious slacker." The first question after is usually "What have you done?" and following that I usually hear, "I've never heard of you" or "Ohhhh, Children's stories," in a voice like "There's a worm in my salad." So I seldom mention writing. The only neighbor who knows, for example, is the one who is an actress.
If you could do something outrageous, dangerous, or crazy without any ill consequences for anyone, what would it be?
I've already done all three, and outrageous, dangerous, or crazy aren't the same in real life as they are in film! Though outrageous is still possible. Someone made the mistake of daring me to do the Chicken Dance once. of course I did it! Buck-a-buck squauuuwk! Squawk!
Thank you, Sherwood! Here's to many more productive years as pretentious slackers!
I love Sherwood Smith's books!!! That so cool to have an interview with her!!!
Posted by: Nora | October 25, 2007 at 11:16 PM
Whoa, coo-wul interview! And if I had a writer living next to me, I'd probably load her/him with tons of questions, asking for tips and ideas and stuff like that...Yes, I'd be annoying, but I probably wouldn't be able to help it :)
Posted by: Bohae | October 26, 2007 at 01:40 AM
Oh Shannon! You got Sherwood Smith?!? I thought I was the only one in the world who knew about her (okay fine, not quite true; Crown Duel and Court Duel are checked out a lot in my library, but still). I didn't know there was a scene taken out with Flauvic. Now I really want to get a hold of my paperback copy and read it all in one go *curses college homework* You have impeccable tastes, if I do say so myself. Thank you so much for posting this up Shannon!
Posted by: Heather | October 26, 2007 at 05:09 AM
Great interview, Shannon! Crown Duel is one of my favorite books.
Posted by: Anidori-Isilee | October 26, 2007 at 08:06 AM
What a great interview! I adore Sherwood Smith.
She's on livejournal, in case anyone didn't know.
http://sartorias.livejournal.com/profile
Posted by: Jane | October 26, 2007 at 12:21 PM
There's also a community on Livejournal that revolves around S-d and reading/writing in general. You can ask Sherwood Smith questions about everything and she DOES answer!
http://community.livejournal.com/athanarel/
Posted by: Surya | October 26, 2007 at 02:37 PM
I kind of freaked out a little when I saw Sherwood Smith's name at the top of the new blog, since I l-o-v-e Sherwood Smith. I read Crown Duel and Court Duel after a particuarly hard move and loved how easily I was transported to Mel's world. This basically just made my day.
Posted by: Gretchen | October 26, 2007 at 02:38 PM
Whoa whoa whoa wait. Can someone tell me what S-d is? Is it something in the book? I haven't read it. If that's where it's from maybe that's why I'm so confused... I'm going to look for that now--it sounds great!
And besides that, I just read Blackbringer and ADORED it. Shannon, you have SUPERB taste. I am so jealous.
Posted by: Q | October 26, 2007 at 08:11 PM
S-d stands for Sartorias-deles, and it's the world in which Crown Duel and some other of Sherwood Smith's books are set. ((and i did go to wikipedia for that information.))
Posted by: Anidori-Isilee | October 27, 2007 at 04:19 AM
Crown Duel and Court Duel sound great! As soon as my mom lets me go to the library, i'll try to find it! (i'm on strike now-
:(
boo hoo)
Posted by: Fantasy | October 27, 2007 at 07:42 AM
These interviews shouldn't be called "squeetus exclusive" becaue if anyone really cared to they could just copy/paste the text and host it somewhere else. I have yet to notice anything in the site's code that would block the copy/pasting of blog posts. Why anyone would I can't imagine.
Posted by: Nitpick | October 27, 2007 at 11:05 AM
Yay! Thank you. I love Sherwood Smith!
Posted by: Biel | October 27, 2007 at 04:10 PM
Oh my gosh...
Shannon, I completely understand why you were drawn to the book just by the cover. The cover of Crown Duel was the first thing I saw and was like "Whoa! What book is that!? It looks so good. I've got to read it!"
It sounds really interesting too. They don't have it a my school or public library though. I'll have to track it down at Borders. Order it if I have to. It's a bit of a downer that my public library doesn't have many YA books. It only has about one-hundred. And most of them don't really sound that interesting either. I like fantasy and most of the books are about teen-drama and I get enough of that at school. Oh well. They just brought in this book that looks simply amazing...
Though, it's obvious they have The Goose Girl and Enna Burning. They haven't brought in River Secrets or B1000 or Austenland yet (and I haven't seen Princess Academy) but I will soon change that. Time for a little talk with my very good friend the librarian...
Oh, and Shewood sounds like an amazing writer. And she sounds like she's got nerve to. I would never do the chicken dance. Then again...
Posted by: Ellenboro | October 27, 2007 at 04:40 PM
Wow... I didn't realize my last post was so long. My bad.
Posted by: Ellenboro | October 27, 2007 at 04:40 PM
Yay for Sherwood Smith! Crown Duel is one of my favorite books. The Wren books were really good to, I've been waiting for years for this elusive above-mentioned fourth book. Any ideas on when its coming out? :D
Posted by: Amy | October 27, 2007 at 04:53 PM
nitpick,
Knock it off. There's no reason to "nitpick." It's just a name.
Posted by: Enna Isilee | October 27, 2007 at 05:04 PM
The name is false in its claims of exclusion.
Posted by: Nitpick | October 27, 2007 at 06:01 PM
So? Does that matter? Is the world going to end? And it was a squeetus "exclusive" for some amount of time. Please. This is a place where people want to feel comfortable (please don't give me that crap about how "anyone can post anything on the internet" and "we shouldn't expect what we can't control" or anything like that, I've heard it.)
Posted by: Enna Isilee | October 27, 2007 at 06:31 PM
Enna Isilee--
I'm not trying to be rude or offensive but I think you are too quick to jump all over people. To be honest, it makes me feel uncomfortable. Please---simmer down.
Posted by: Jane | October 27, 2007 at 07:16 PM
Oh my gosh. Jane I'm so sorry. I'm a living Oxymoron aren't I? I should have just ignored him.
So sorry.
Posted by: Enna Isilee | October 27, 2007 at 07:49 PM
Or her. My bad. Or her.
Posted by: Enna Isilee | October 27, 2007 at 07:50 PM
Bravo, Enna Isilee. Not many people take a come-uppance so graciously. ;)
Posted by: Jane | October 27, 2007 at 07:59 PM
I was wrong. I realized that at 6:32 unfortunately.
Posted by: Enna Isilee | October 27, 2007 at 08:11 PM
Though Jane, have I "jumped" on someone before? Oh dear. I was fully aware of my jumping this time, but not any other. Which is much worse.
Posted by: Enna Isilee | October 27, 2007 at 08:19 PM
Thank you, Shannon, for your questions and for the opportunity to appear on your blog. And no gas/travel expense, woo hoo! I love me the Internets.
To the person who asked about the fourth Wren book, it was written three years ago, and eventually I will get it published! Thank you for asking.
Posted by: Sherwood Smith | October 28, 2007 at 08:21 AM
That cracks me up about her neighborhood.
Posted by: Holly | October 28, 2007 at 12:26 PM
More than one person "jumped" all over Dante, and that upset me quite a bit because he/she was absolutely hilarious and I always watched for his/her comments and now he/she has been scared away. His/her comments could be rude and disrespectful if read in a certain way, but with an open mind, they seemed more humorous than rude.
I don't remember who it was, but since you asked...
It seems to me that there are a lot of people commenting here (I'm not singling out anyone in particular) who seem to be so defensive about Shannon and everything else. It's irritating and I think Shannon is fully capable of dealing with someone who is bothering her. I wish everybody could lighten up and back off.
I've been longing to say that for an age.
Posted by: Jane | October 28, 2007 at 05:44 PM
And it's nice to hear you say it.
Posted by: Enna Isilee | October 28, 2007 at 07:53 PM
Oh dear. That's what I've felt to be different. I knew there was something missing but I was not sure what it was. My homework and my mother's graduate school studies via the internet kept me from reading and posting in about four blogs. I can't believe Dante has gone. His posts might have been critical but this is a BLOG! In my opinion one is supposed to discuss different subjects in a blog. Otherwise, with everybody agreeing, it would be boring. Dante's commentaries were completely witty and humorous.
I fully agree with Jane.
Posted by: Ellenboro | October 29, 2007 at 09:07 AM
Glad to see that someone else mourns Dante's passing. A few of his/her comments were slightly over the line, but, well, they were clearly opinion posts!
And don't worry about being a living oxymoron, Enna Isilee, I'm sure people who read my posts thank that it's impossible that I am one person. And they are almost right. Almost.
And I also find it amusing how we're completely off the subject of Sherwood Smith. And how often that seems to happen on Squeetus. I hope no subject of the blog entries feels offended by the random familiarity of many Squeetusers.
Posted by: Q | October 29, 2007 at 02:50 PM
Hey, everyone! Just wanted to say that, if you're interested, there's a great Sherwood Smith short story called "Beauty" in an anthology by Firebirds, called "Firebirds: An Anthology of Original Fantasy and Science Fiction". It's about Crown Duel but not any of the main characters, from what I understand. It's the first thing I read from her, and really enjoyed it! I can HIGHLY recommend Karavans & Deepwood, too. About the anthology, watch out -- some of my favorite short stories are in there, but also some of my least favorite. Leave "Beauty" or "Poppy" for last -- they're great!
Posted by: smileynann | October 29, 2007 at 04:05 PM
I love your blog, Shannon, it's the only one I read regularly. Funnily enough, the other author web site i check often is Sherwood Smith! I love Crown Duel and made all my friends read it, and we used to act the scene where Mel goes to the ball at Athnarel and Vidanric takes her down the staircase. You should see us, trying to "narrow our eyes in suppressed laughter". Anyway, thanks for the interview!
And for the people above, you weren't too off-topic, I hope no one would be offended.
Oh, and I bought Firebirds just so I could read Beauty and I really liked it, I think Meliara's children need a book of their own. Just my opinion. :-)
Posted by: ValliaLeah | October 29, 2007 at 08:07 PM
The rude comments made by people (yes, there's been more than one) have made me want to stop reading this blog and the comments here entirely on occasion. I can find Shannon's words elsewhere for info. People have been disrespectful, condescending, and just downright rude at times. Obviously, we're all Shannon's fans (why else would we be reading her blog?) so at this point I think everyone should just try to watch what they say, preview posts before posting, and stop to think, "Hey, could I be hurting someone's feelings with what I'm saying?"
It's common curtesy, to Shannon and her fans.
Posted by: Calliope1of9 | October 30, 2007 at 07:47 PM
Thank you Calliope1of9 and Jane for speaking up. I think we need to realise everyone is entitled to their opinion.
Posted by: australiangirl | October 30, 2007 at 11:47 PM
Happy Halloween!
November is National Novel Writing Month. Is anyone starting NaNoWriMo tomorrow? If you don't know what I'm talking about, you should check out www.nanowrimo.org
I'm not starting the official 50,000 word challenge, but I am going to try to finish writing my longest rough draft. I've never finished a novel.
And Shannon, I love the author interviews! Sherwood Smith's books look like lots of fun. I'll be reading them just as soon as I finish my rough draft.
Posted by: myrna | October 31, 2007 at 11:52 AM
Yea! I went out and bought Crown Duel just a little bit after I read Goose Girl--5 years ago--because it was on Shannon's list of recommended books. It made me happy. Shannon, you do have impeccable taste. I have absconded with my library's copies of Megan Whalen Turner's books...I haven't been able to bring myself to return them yet.
Posted by: Alauna | October 31, 2007 at 03:12 PM
My dear, you abuse me. I may be a synonym for taking, but from a library one would imagine that you did not truly take them to avoid capture. If one was to take smutty romance novels or issues of PENTHOUSE, you would abscond them, but that connotation is inappropriate in the context of procuring Attolia books from a library. Word choice is always important.
Posted by: Abscond | October 31, 2007 at 03:44 PM
To utilize the popular chatspeak phrase,
O RLY?
to the "everyone is entitled to their own opinions." Everyone, my foot.
Posted by: Anon | October 31, 2007 at 10:37 PM
O RLY?
Posted by: Q | November 01, 2007 at 05:53 AM
Abscond, clearly I was avoiding being captured by the grasping hand of boredom. Or you could say I helped the books "escape from a place of detention." And now, avoiding capture by the library itself since I won't give them back, I have absconded WITH the books, or taken the books with me, you see? I often have insane logic for my word choice, but it makes sense to me. But, as you say, connoting smutty romance is doing Eugenides' story a great disservice. And I apologize.
Oh, and I suppose it was only 4 years ago, not 5. Sorry everyone.
Posted by: Alauna | November 01, 2007 at 09:37 AM
(as long as we're examining the meaning of words...) Nitpik--I'm so confused by your objection to the word "exclusive." I think perhaps you don't understand what it means. Of course anyone can copy the interview and post it elsewhere once it's up. There would be no way to prevent that. But the point is, it appeared here first and the interviewees answered these questions just for this blog. This is the definition of this particular usage:
Journalism. a piece of news, or the reporting of a piece of news, obtained by a newspaper or other news organization, along with the privilege of using it first.
Posted by: Nitpikier | November 01, 2007 at 10:23 AM
Ah...I love it when us Squeetusers seemingly get off topic. Only seemingly though. If you truly think about it (andf look for the deep strange logic behind it) it is all connected in some way.
My librarian friend wasn't there when I went to the library the other day. I wonder if she reads this blog, knows who I am, and did not go on that particular day (she has this "power" where she can just "feel" if I'll be going that day or not) simply to annoy me. I can only wonder...
Oh! I'm in a thinking mood today.
Better take that thinking and use it on my homework.
Posted by: Ellenboro | November 01, 2007 at 01:25 PM
wow. this is my first time on this site. found the link on Sherwood's page and thought i'd check it out since i also loved The Goose Girl. this has all been very interesting (and amusing) to read. i think i'll visit more. it's just like a coffee shop conversation. :)
Posted by: Ven | November 03, 2007 at 08:52 PM
Crown Duel is one of my daughter's "comfort" reads. She read one copy to pieces and had to buy another one.
Posted by: Camille | November 14, 2007 at 10:22 PM