Because marag asked...

[greenygal]

...here are my done-from-memory notes on Dana Stabenow's talk yesterday at the National Book Festival.

--Stabenow talked about her early experiences with books. As a kid in bush Alaska, her local library was only open one night a week and had so few books that you were only allowed to check out four at a time. The first books she ever checked out, which she was directed towards by the librarian, were Nancy Drew.

--She has enormous respect for libraries and librarians (which is probably not news if you've read the Kate Shugak or Star Svensdotter books). Quote: "I believe that reference librarians sit at the right hand of God." As someone with a number of librarians in the family, this sort of thing is always pleasant to hear.

--She described a specific incident where she'd been researching soapstone for her third book, and came across a passing reference to the native custom of storyknifing and was intrigued. The reference librarians--who appear to be the ones who assisted Kate in Play With Fire--spent hours looking for more information for her, finally locating a single microfiched article. Stabenow loved the idea, storyknives went into the book, and a friend gave her a storyknife pin which she regards as a talisman and wears to every public appearance.

--She got really interested in mysteries after reading Josephine Tey's The Daughter of Time. She felt that if you could do that in the context of a mystery novel, you could do anything.

--Stabenow has not had an overall planned arc for the series.

--Apparently, the original outline for Breakup called for Kate to be attracted to the villain. Kate refused to cooperate, and seventy-five pages wound up having to be scrapped. Stabenow thinks she wrote so many things going wrong for Kate in that book out of revenge.

--She also mentioned that she had no idea Kate could behave the way she's doing in the latest book, Taint of Blood. Having just read it--I know what she means!

--Bobby Clark wasn't in the original outline of Play With Fire, either, but he came onstage and Stabenow figured that he had something to say here. So she called up a veterans' organization to determine if it was workable for him to be out in the woods harvesting mushrooms in his wheelchair. She says there was a long silence on the other end of the line.

--She didn't plan for Jack to die in Hunter's Moon. She She knew she needed Jack and Mutt to be incapacitated so that Kate would have to face the bad guys alone (she says she was doing a "Most Dangerous Game" riff), but the ending to that scene apparently more or less wrote itself. Whereupon she shut down the computer and walked away from it for a day, trying to decide if she should change it. She believes that Jack's death was ultimately the right choice for the series.

--She won't say if she's going to do anything to Chopper Jim.

--Kate's throat injury has no particular meaning or origin; Stabenow just needed a reason for Kate to have quit her job and gone back home.

--Mutt likewise does not come from anywhere in particular; Stabenow referred to her as "a gift from the writing gods." She said that she does not have a Mutt in real life.

--At present she's contracted for at least one more Liam Campbell novel and a standalone book. I don't think she gave any more details about either.

--Liam originated when her editor called her up and asked her when she was going to do a book about Chopper Jim. (Stabenow said this isn't the kind of question you usually get from your editor.) This was apparently not possible for contractual reasons, and when Stabenow explained this, the editor said "Then write about another trooper!"

--There is apparently some interest in a Kate Shugak movie. Stabenow is insistent that it not happen unless it stars a particular actress (whose name I can't recall, but she's willing), is shot in Alaska, and has a script written by someone who's lived in Alaska.

--She has three more books planned for her science-fiction series, but doesn't know when it'll happen, since the mystery books are what's selling. (This was my question, and the answer surprised me; I was expecting her to say that she'd moved on to mystery permanently. It also leaves me with slightly mixed feelings, since I liked her first two sci-fi novels very much but found the third one boring. But if she writes more I'll pick 'em up.)

Comments

[illmantrim.livejournal.com]

very cool! Thank you for sharing!

[marag.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I'd also be pleased if she did more SF. I've got two, but I can't remember which ones. I liked 'em a lot.

I like the Liam Campbell books too, so I'm pleased to know there will be more.

As for Jack's death...well, as I said, I don't like it, but I can see why it works. Stabenow's no Marz. ::snerk::