by IGMS
The novel L'Amber (written only by me!) is placed in 1980s-ish London and environs. Grayglass has a slightly earlier and later timeframe, and uses London generally, with a brief excursion to New York. Otherwise this book does operate within an underplayed yet intense supernatural twister. Death of the Day is a detective novel, influenced by and therefore in the tradition of Ruth Rendell. It resides in 1990s Kent and Sussex, England. There are two other novels -- To Indigo and God's Dogs. To Indigo stays firmly in London during the 2000s, but contains a strange alter-motif concerning a Prague-like alchemical city around the late 1700s. Be warned though: the last is because the book's main character is a writer, and the alternate location represents his single (closet) fantasy novel! God's Dogs is set in 1934, mostly in England, but with flashbacks to a slightly earlier time in mainland Europe. L'Amber and Death of the Day were published, too, by the same small press (P.O.D.) that brought out the Garber books. None of these books is now available, however, as the firm packed up. Greyglass did nearly make it into print but had the door slammed in its face by the same outfit a couple of days before release. Meanwhile, both the Garber books got very good reviews in Locus, and so did Death of the Day over here, in the Guardian.
Frankly though, when I first started to write novels, (about sixteen years of age, circa 1963-64) I did opt for parallel historical, and finally out-and-out Fantasy and SF venues, indeed in order to escape 'ordinary' fiction -- even though I still continued to enjoy, along with fantastical material, reading about the so-called everyday. With impressive geniuses like Graham Greene, Jane Austen (historical, yes, but still this world and the everyday for then), Jane Gaskell, J.B. Priestly and Richard Llewellyn, working in that area, my interest isn't surprising. But by now I find for myself no discrepancy that way when I write "ordinary world" novels. For me they're all part of a carpet I keep on weaving, in company, in a curious manner, with all dedicated writers, artists and composers, as with all I do of whatever leaning. I relish my contemporary books, cherish them, am obsessed by them. They flow or sometimes stick -- just as the fantasy ones can. It's all fiction, after all. And all real to me, or more real, than the world (beautiful or horribly cruel) that we physically inhabit.
SCHWEITZER: I know you've written a few teleplays, including a couple installments of Blake's 7. Have you wanted to write more for the screen, big or little, or do you prefer writing for the printed page?
LEE: When I first started to write at any sustained length, (about age twelve) I wrote plays almost exclusively. (Though I confess to writing a Priestly inspired novel at ten/eleven -- it was called Forsythia Square, a contemporary work [1950s] of curious type!) I loved/love live theatre, and radio drama -- which then was far more omnipresent than now -- though BBC Radio generally maintains a stunning standard in both acting and production. I immensely liked writing the two Blake's 7 scripts. I'd watched the show from the beginning and was fascinated by all the characters. (My original hope, had the series continued, was to write an "in-depth" script for each of them. At least I got to tackle Cally, Avon somewhat, and Servalann.)
I can imagine, now, writing other radio plays. (I did actually write one years back, which I never submitted, finding it too dark -- it was called Darkness -- a consideration that I'm afraid wouldn't stop me today -- but my radio contacts are mostly gone. As for TV -- it's changed such a lot I'm not sure. While a movie, knowing as I do something of the paraphernalia and muddle that seems to attend all script-writes, (see F. Scott Fitzgerald if in doubt, and that was back then!) might not be a challenge I'd choose to take on. Luckily I'm spared that choice so far: no one has asked. Incidentally anyway, when I write for the "printed page" I personally see it as a movie, (aside from how the characters relay their inner thoughts and mental attributes). All within my head. It's all, for me, happened, or is happening. All on film.
SCHWEITZER: And, what are you working on now? What might we expect to see from you in the near future?
LEE: The Flat Earth books are due, all of them, to start being reissued in 2009, from Norilana Books, the established five to be followed by at least one more. And there are loads of my short stories and novellas either recently out or about to be, in anthologies and magazines such as Realms of Fantasy, Asimov's and Weird Tales -- see my website: (Also your own anthology on Werewolves.)
Meanwhile, my two main UK publishers, Hodder and MacMillan, have between them rejected three proposals from me for new work. These were the detailed proposals everyone now seems to need, and both firms rather oddly kept the two (Hodder) and one (MacMillan) packages -- and myself -- hanging on for six months in either case. (I had been publishing YA books with Hodder, incidentally, for ten years. Five for adult work with MacMillan.) That then was my main income gone, if nothing else. Neither company gave any encouragement that I should offer anything else, rather the reverse. Not, frankly, that I felt inclined to.
The small UK press as well, Egerton House, which was publishing other work of mine, such as contemporary novels, a detective novel, and lesbian fiction, had already folded, leaving many accounts unsettled.
I have since attempted to interest a number of other houses. Reaction here has been mixed, the smaller presses indeed seeming the least inclined, and -- in a couple of cases -- very cavalier. Other possibilities do exist, but unfortunately due, as they say, to circumstances beyond my control, at present, I have not been able to discuss any new commitments -- hopefully the new year will resolve this situation. Also there has been, as ever, a constant flow of openings for short fiction, which has been a real joy to do. Alas, it doesn't pay the bills. Altogether, that financial way, I am now in a nightmare scenario.
But, as said before, while able, I will always write. It's like breathing to me. My current project is a weird contemporary novel called Ivorian, which veers between a detective story and a supernatural -- or is it -- take on sibling hatred. Also, I have two completed contemporary novels and one collection of mixed lesbian, gay and heterosexual short stories, all sitting in the cupboard. Oh, and the rejected ventures? What they were to have been, and still may be, were: 1) The Firesmith -- a violently and erotically bronze-iron age adult epic, whose priest-mage-metalsmith-protagonist must survive in a dark age savaged by fire-blasting dragons. And for Young Adults: 2) a fourth pirate novel in the Piratica series -- War and Pieces of Eight, the final saga of Art and her handsome husband Felix -- he is now consort of the Queen of Scotland, and featuring a more than guest appearance by Apolleon, the Napoleon of their history. Plus 3) Glitterash, or King of Ghosts. That being the story of a one-handed pianist gang-warrior, in an SF worldscape of blazingly ruinous cities and oil-slicked, wasp-infested seas, where the written word has been dumbed right out of existence, and reinvented "modern" Tarot cards have become the credo of Law, religion and power.
Sound a bit flat, don't they? Far too unoriginal and slow for any publishers to take a risk on.
I must admit, I never thought, after all the years of working as a professional writer in and out of the genres, I would end up at sixty-one, back where I was at twenty: unknown, unpaid, unincluded, uncertain.
SCHWEITZER: Thank you, Tanith.
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