12 years ago
Mon Nov 07 2011, 09:27pm
Isobelle Q&A
I asked Isobelle a few questions at the Penguin pancake breakfast, and later, at Supernova, she agreed to extend my little interview. I talked to her while walking between A and B, while Ian Irvine was talking about his new book (we whispered behind him) between B and her taxi and outside while she made the taxi wait for five minutes. She was just lovely!
Because of the haphazard nature of our extended discussion, I don't have audio or a transcript. Here is a summary of the Q&A, but please remember this is just written from my notes, so none of this is direct quotes.
Spoilers for The Sending, so read at your own risk!!!
Q:Â Are Earth's satellites still in orbit?
A: Yes
Q:Â Can Misfits use them? Like to extend a signal? Or bounce it across water?
A: Isobelle asked if I meant Farseekers.
Q: I said that I did.
A: I think Isobelle was very decisive as she told me yes, they definitely could. She added that she's not saying that they ever will, but they definitely can.
Isobelle talked about how she liked the question and about a great question she got from an Obernetter in Melbourne (who was this?). People always ask if Elspeth will ever meet Jes again. But this girl asked if Elspeth will ever meet anyone who KNEW Jes after he discovered he was a Misfit.
She didn't answer the question then, or to me, but she DID say that as Elspeth entered Iriny's memory of the Saithwold monument, she could certainly enter someone else's memory of Jes, and so see him again, in that way.Â
Q: In Ashling, Elspeth says the plague started in Aborium/Murmroth. The beforetime library is right between them. Does the plague have anything to do with the Misfits opening the library?
A: Yes. No one uses books in the Beforetime, libraries are depositories where only dusty old men go, and most information is stored on computerised books (we both laughed because I was taking notes on my ipad). Under a library is considered a good place to hide things in the Beforetime and there are things like secret laboratories. It's not relevant to the story, but "in my head, yes, the plague came from the library."
Q: I thanked Isobelle for Merret and Blyss. I told her how, as a queer Misfit, it  meant a lot to me to see a normal gay couple being accepted as common place.
A: Another gay girl told her the same thing at Supanova on the Saturday! She said that she likesthe idea that not everything is shocking.Â
Q: I said that I thought it was funny how the Landfolk were so conservative, but gay marriage didn't raise an eyebrow.
A: After the Great White, the world has gone backwards, but Isobelle thinks that, in some ways, we would have evolved.
Q: Dameon lost his inheritance and Council seat to a cousin? Now we know all their names, so: Which exCouncilman is Dameon's cousin?
A: Isobelle knows who he is. She might go into it in TRQ, or perhaps in a short story or the Beforetime Chronicles. If she doesn't, then she will one day just tell us outright.
Q: I said I thought he might be related to Analivia.
A: No. He is not related to Analivia, Radost and co.
Q: There are a lot more adult themes in The Sending. Are these ideas you added as you matured, are they there because Elspeth has matured, or because your audience has?
A: She always knew Rushton and Elspeth would be together, and as she became older, she realised they'd be together in every way. At 14, she knew they would be completely together, but she was 14, and didn't know exactly what that meant.
Q: What about Analivia? Why did you decide on that backstory for her?A: A: Analivia wrote herself. Isobelle Liked her, but she really didn't try to bring her back. She was just the right person... She said she didn't want to spoil me, but there had always been a role that needed to be played by a woman, and Analivia fitted into the gap.
Q: I said I knew what she meant and I was very excited about becase I love Analivia. But what about the incest? A controversial and very adult theme, why?
A: Isobelle just thought she needed to be more well rounded. It's real world. Bad things happen to people sometimes. She thought Bergold would be more important but it turned out to be Analivia. She knew something bad was in Analivia's past and when she started the Sending, she knew that something was abuse, but she didn't know the exact nature of that abuse until she wrote it.
Q: Elspeth describes the Great White as being 20 generations ago. How long is a generation?
A: Elspeth may be wrong about that.Â
Q: How does blind beast speech work?
A: She demonstrated, which makes it hard for me to repeat here! Basically, if the bastspeech symbol is to hold up two fingers, then for Dameon, you touch him with two fingers.
Q: Don't you think it would be awesome if Dameon were a Beastspeaker, then he could ask animals to act as a Guide Dog?
A: *laughter*
Q: Does Elspeth have any other relatives? Grandparents, cousins? Do they not exist or did they just not want to take Elf & Jes in?
A: No. There is no one.
Q: Elspeth speculates that her parents might have known Brydda. Did they?
A: Maybe. She has a feeling there is something there but she hasn't explored it yet. It's probably something that will be explored in the Beforetime Chronicles, through Cassy's dreams.
Q: The Chrysalids, by John Wyndham...
A: I love that book!
Q: Me too. When I read it, I wondered if you were influenced by it. Dd you read it as a teenager?
A: She read it at about 18. Yes, there are some strong similarities to Obernewtyn and she was really thrilled to find that someone was writing about the same things as her, and asking the same kinds of questions.
Q: What's with the bat hate?
A: What do you mean?
Q: I thought the rhenlings were bats. They seemed like bats to me.
A: Omigod, really? They're not bats. It never occured to her that they might be bats. To her, they're mutated rats with wings. They are about as big as a cat. She also wanted them to be spidery, because that's scary.
Q: But all the animals are usually so multi dimensional, even the wolves. Why are the rhenlings just pure savagery?
A: Basically, to make them scary.
Q: Why do Empaths and Coercers seem to connect so much? Kella and Domick, Miky and Hannay, Merret and Blyss?
A: They connect because their talent comes from the same root.
Q: While writing TKP, did you know Angina's injury would lead to what it did?
A: Yes. She knew it would result in an injury to the heart, that he would have to deal with emotionally. The purpose of the Miky and Angina stuff in the book WAS to teach Elf how to use that dark power (as some of us speculated in theories). To Angina it was not a thing of darkness, but of light, a release.
And yes, it is pronounced Ann-jy-na, like the heart condition, and that is exactly the connection she was thinking of when she named him.
And that's that.
Yay for answered questions!
Its really interesting to hear some of the process behind the writing or lack of process like Analivia writing herself
Thanks Kayt :D
"there had always been a role that needed to be played by a woman" oooooooh, :P :D
I thought that was a very clever question Sian :D
I've always wondered if that would happen, because it was never stated what happened to the rest of them...hmmm very interesting indeed :D
Mystic Ward
12 years ago
Mystic Ward
Twentyfamilies Gypsy
Thanks Kayt. That is wonderful.
Wow, Kayt that's awesome!
I still can't believe they're not bats!! No matter what anybody says, I think they're always going to be bats in my head.
And Sian, your question was awesome! I can't wait to read TRQ!!
I am confused...I still don't know what your question was Sian
Well rats was a surprise but if you take a look at bats they have a similarity to rats and they also rhyme XD
Thanks for sharing, Kayt!
