Serafina, please do read the HDM trilogy. It’s awesome and you will love it.

Oh god, we ARE?! I didn’t know this. I mean, I have a ton of friends on there and I barely know who’s on the list. Once I get on facebook later tonight, I’ll look around for ya.

Also, Kandide gets better in the second half; the MC does change, which is a great thing cuz sometimes I was seriously wanting to strangle her.

*bows head in shame* and i must admit that the Serafina is not a Phillip Pullman tribute. And that I am a very strange, horrible person who has still not read His Dark Materials. In my defense, and odd coincidence, The Shadow in the North is sitting right next to me, half-done, but that’s sort of unrelated. The Serafina Zane is actually a tribute to a character from one of my old stories of the same name. Ah, Sera. She was cool. Could conjure lightning.
I should work on that more…*wanders off to laptop*

Serafina, maybe you’re on Scott Westerfeld’s blog sometimes? I just know that I always instantly recognize your lovely Philip Pullman nickname.

and Suburban Glamour is *supposed* to be available in the US as a trade already, I’ve been trying to get ahold of it. should look into that again.

Do you have the same hatred for facebook that you do for myspace? I’m on facebook as well, and import my blogs from myspace onto there. Pretty much, all I’m getting at here is that I’d love to hear your comments on my blog entries, haha.

Melissa: I totally get what you’re saying about not wanting to go into too much detail with explanations and so forth. It’s definitely better, I think, to err on the side of frugality-of-words than to err on the other side. The one that means you end up with a book that is 700,000 pages long. Speaking of which, if you come back and read this, we should totally play Twenty Questions (my preferred interview format) or something. E-mail me, yah? It’s brina AT yanewyork DOT com.

But I do enjoy the whole faery lore and all that because I like reading about paranormal books. It gives it that fun, ethereal feel to the reading experience, and I love that.

I hope that answered your question- it felt like I was just rambling on, lol.

re: creatures & lore
I guess with things like Ly Ergs & Glaistigs & all the rest I don’t think it’s necessary to get into the history of the tradition or the minutia. I reveal the details that make them relev to the tale I’m telling. Basically, treat them like I would any other character: only reveal what’s plot-essential. The alternative–imho–is too “data dump-y” for me. I’m trying to keep to a close narrative pov, so as not to pull a reader out of the text for those “as you know Jane . . .” kinda explanations. It’s just a personal reading preference, so I guess it creeps into the writing part too.

That said, my editors do read with an eye for “what is assumed knowledge that isn’t obvious.” I’m so immersed in the lore that I forget sometimes that not everyone is. My editors ping that for correction in the revision process.

*stops self before getting too much further into rambling over craft & lore*