Author Introduction: Michelle West

[jpskewedthrone]

Here's the next in installment in this week's flurry of new releases and author introductions.
Say HI to Michelle West (msagara), everyone! And then go check out her books.

"jpsorrow kindly offered to let me say a few words in his LJ,
and I have been struggling to come up with interesting words ever
since, because sharing space with someone who has his own minions
is always going to be a little daunting. (Sharing space with someone
who is as charming, well-groomed and socially adept in real life? Also
daunting. Watch me struggle. Throw me a life buoy if it looks like I'm
about to go under.)

A little bit about me, then. I live in Toronto, with my long-suffering
husband and my two sons. We have no pets because people in my extended
household are allergic to animals, and would probably take the
acquisition of an animal as a passive-aggressive request that they visit
less often. I have a lot of books, a bunch of computers of varying ages
(because I feel guilty throwing them out), and a part-time job in a
bookstore which gets me out of the house and doesn't cost money. Much.

Mostly, I write. I write novels because the third short story I tried
to write became four novels. From this, it's probably evident that I
have no idea how long it's going to take me to tell a story. I've
gotten a bit better with that over time, but not ideally as much
as I would like; part of the reason I have so much trouble with length
is that I start with a very, very strong emotional image -- and the arcs
that lead up to that are all emotional arcs. I don't so much structure
the story itself as the emotional arcs, but sometimes the scenes and
story arcs that support the emotion, that make it explicable, are longer
and more complicated than I had originally thought. Where sometimes in
this case pretty much means "always".



I have eight books with DAW, and all of them take place within the same
universe; my ninth novel also takes place there. The Hidden City
[Amazon; Mysterious Galaxy] is chronologically the earliest of the books,
and it tells the story of Jewel Markess (she hates that name), and the slow gathering of her den.
Jewel doesn't have family, but she's not constrained by the lack; she is
building her family, person by person. I've always been interested in
the concept of family, and in particular, the family that you get to
choose, as opposed to the family that you're born into.

This is not actually the book that I started to write. I started to
write a book called House War (yes, a book. See above: re
my third attempt at a short story). I had always intended to write that
novel, and what I wanted from that novel was the room in which to slide
back and forth between the past -- Jewel's building of her family-by-
choice -- and the 'present', as she fights to preserve her family by
adoption and the House in which it now resides. But as it happens, I
started that novel six times, and the chapter that screamed out
"this is Chapter One" was the only chapter in which that
structure would utterly fail. I briefly attempted to ignore this, but
my husband, when presented with the six partial chapters, got to that
one and said "This is where the book starts." There was a bit of
swearing in the house that night.

So instead of the politics and the conflicts inherent in a large and
politically powerful House, this is a novel about building family,
taking risks, hidden cities and, well, demons. It is also the first of
a series, which will eventually see Jewel and her den from the streets
of the holdings to the most powerful House in the Empire -- and will
culminate in the House War after which the series is
named.

The Hidden City is my first hardcover. Even if you do not buy
it, go into a bookstore and look at the cover because I am
entirely in love with that cover, and the amazon image does not do it
justice."



Michelle' West's Other Books



Hunter’s Oath [Amazon; Mysterious Galaxy]



Hunter’s Death [Amazon; Mysterious Galaxy]

The Sun Sword Sextet



The Broken Crown [Amazon; Mysterious Galaxy]



The Uncrowned King [Amazon; Mysterious Galaxy]



The Shining Court [Amazon; Mysterious Galaxy]



Sea of Sorrows [Amazon; Mysterious Galaxy]



The Riven Shield [Amazon; Mysterious Galaxy]



The Sun Sword [Amazon; Mysterious Galaxy]

Comments

[booniecat.livejournal.com]

I love these author introduction posts. What a way to expand my reading circle! (And so much better than just reading th eback of a book)

Thanks for stretching my budget just that much more!

[jpsorrow.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I'm glad you're enjoying them. I hope to continue it for a while, since it seems everyone likes it.

Budgets are so limiting, aren't they?

I read you as Michelle Sagara

[maiaarts.livejournal.com]

Thank you for great adventures! I love the Cast series soooooo much.
I will try to make time to read your other work

Re: I read you as Michelle Sagara

[msagara.livejournal.com]

Thank you for great adventures! I love the Cast series soooooo much.
I will try to make time to read your other work

Thank you :). But the bookseller in me has to say that the two series are very different in tone -- the West books are more epic, with more viewpoints and a longer, multi-book plot, and I know they don't work for everyone.

Re: I read you as Michelle Sagara

[jpsorrow.livejournal.com]

But they're still very good. Just sayin.

[jpsorrow.livejournal.com]

You're welcome! Books are tasty, yes?

[msagara.livejournal.com]

Welcome Michelle!!

Thank you :)

[fireun.livejournal.com]

i had to laminate my copies of the Hunter books. they saw much reading. its getting close to replacing them time, as they are more zombie than novel at this point. poor books. poor, fantastic books. was looking at Hidden City at work yesterday. was happy to see a hardcover from such an excellent author!

[jpsorrow.livejournal.com]

See, Michelle? Here's one fan who's more than willing to buy the book in hardcover. And THIS fan works in a bookstore and will push your book onto other unsuspecting fans as well. So your trepidation about a hardcover release is completely unfounded.

[fireun.livejournal.com]

more than willing? indeed. if i wasn't so set on not going near the store on my one day off i would be grabbing it now. though...book + plus coca + cat + comforter seems like a fantastic idea...
anyway, i prefer hardcovers. i can be a bit....rough on mass market editions.

[msagara.livejournal.com]

i had to laminate my copies of the Hunter books. they saw much reading. its getting close to replacing them time, as they are more zombie than novel at this point. poor books. poor, fantastic books.

Thank you :). There is nothing quite as happy-making as well-read books.