How could I not have
realized that this year’s ConDFW, that grand North Texas science fiction/fantasy convention would be the last of
its 18-year run? But if all good things must come to an end, ConDFW went out
with a booster rocket of a blast, including discussions by literary guests of
honor Charlaine Harris and Yoon Ha Lee.
Harris hardly needs an
introduction. Disdaining the epithet of “prolific” – ‘I’m not prolific, I’m
just old,’ she assured her audience. “When you’ve been writing for 40 years,
you write a lot of books.” Add, when you fearlessly tackle multiple genres –
and combinations of genres – you don’t easily run out of ideas.
Perhaps best known for
the Southern Vampire series that
mixed mystery and paranormal genres with a touch of romance, and inspired TV’s “True Blood,” Harris described her latest work,
An Easy Death, to moderator Melania
Fletcher as “an alternate-history Western thriller with magic,” noting, “I like
to write about women who kill a lot of people, which had to be set in an
alternate-history universe.”
“Will there be
sequels?” Fletcher asked.
“My publisher surely
hopes so!” Harris replied.
She’s also written
multiple mystery series, urban fantasy, graphic novels (with collaborator Christopher Golden), romances, and short stories. Pressed once as to how many short stories
she’s written, Harris said she had to search her records to realize she’d
written at least 40. “Short stories are so hard. Every word counts and there’s
no leeway with character or description.”
Somehow along the way however,
she also managed to co-edit volumes of short stories, which “really
improved my own writing.”
“What do you do when
you’re not writing?” Fletcher asked. “I understand you have a houseful of
rescue dogs.”
 |
| Charlaine Harris |
“I’m down to two now,”
Harris said. “And I’m really involved with my family and – don’t look surprised
– I’m very active in my church. I’m very religious.”
“Have you gotten any
criticism from your church?” Fletcher asked.
“Not from my church –
I’m Episcopalian, and they’re often quite liberal,” Harris said, then
deadpanned, “but when we sold our house in Arkansas to a woman with a different
religious background, she was advised to have it exorcised.”
Aside from the
possibility of receiving divine aid, doesn’t a woman who writes so prolifically
have to be extremely well-organized, Fletcher mused, wondering if Harris
prefers plotting or winging things as she types.
“I blue-sky it,”
Harris replied. “People ask me what I wear when I write, and I . . . never
understand why that would cross anybody’s mind. It would never cross my mind to
ask Lee Child what he wears when he writes.”
(For the record, her
writing uniform usually consists of jeans and T-shirts. For whoever that may
inspire.)
Next time, my autopsy
of ConDFW continues with a conversation with Yoon Ha Lee.
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