Hello all!
I've had the wonderful opportunity of interviewing Darcy Town, author of The Wastes series and the Morningstar series. She was gracious enough to answer some questions about not only TheWastes series but The Morningstar series as well. I am excited to be able to share the interview with you.
What inspired you to
write Wastes of Space?
I was inspired by a combination of a few things. I saw a particular piece of artwork by an
artist that goes by Hamlet Machine (I admire her art. Her stuff is very adult…so forewarned). The drawing is a simple piece: a girl and her
protector in a sci-fi setting. That
character dynamic clicked with me. My
other published books are all about adults.
For Wastes, I wanted to write
something that also featured young adults.
I play with ageism a lot in the Wastes
series…aka judging a person by the number of years they’ve lived instead of
what kind of years they’ve lived. Ravil
is the poster-child for this concept. A
reader doesn’t know how old she is, she doesn’t know how old she is, and when
you think you know how old she is…you still have a lot to learn. ;)
I also wanted to write dark sci-fi with a character that was
a real anti-hero. I see many “bad boys”
in books that are basically just snide jerks and they’re labeled an
anti-hero. I wrote a guy that hasn’t
just had bad stuff happen to him;
he’s the one doing bad stuff and it is stuff that a reader might be
uncomfortable with. Rake’s a
drug-addicted washout that sells his body to get his next fix. He cheats people out of their money, he robs
them, and he kills others with ease.
Ravil isn’t kidding when she says he grosses her out…and that feeling is
supposed to be shared with a reader.
The world of Wastes seems strange, yet it is very
familiar to our world. Can you tell me a little more about the world you
envisioned for the Wastes series?
Sure thing. In my mind,
the major difference between our two worlds is that the space race didn’t wind
down. Instead, it became intertwined
with the Cold War as the major front
of war. To control space meant you controlled
a vast spy, defense, and offensive network.
To that end, space exploration was solely for militaristic
purposes.
China, the USA, and the USSR began to gobble up smaller
countries under the name of preserving their style of rule. In the US, Barry Goldwater was elected
President and the ultra-paranoid, hawkish nationalism amped up from there. Instead of interfering with each other
directly or preventing expansion, the big three empires focused on arming,
getting into space quickly, and then defending what they controlled from on
high. They created various programs that
brought children up prepared to be soldiers.
Rake, Katarina, Mica, Oro and the others were raised training to become
pilots to eventually defend their empire.
Besides that, things are pretty much the same.
For some people, the
novel may push the envelope a little too far and it really does a great job of
exposing and exploring topics that may be uncomfortable, even unacceptable to
some; what were your concerns if you had any when you began creating this world
and these characters?
I’ve always had concerns that people might get weirded out
by the drug use, prostitution, age gaps in relationships, and the things they
might not see everyday like cross dressers, transgendered individuals, and
hookers and throw the book down…but I want to make people think about why they go “Eww” or “That’s too much of X for
me.” I want people to read about and
even have to identify with characters that take them out of their comfort zone. I think it’s good to expand one’s viewpoint
as opposed to always reading safe, sterile, “normative” characters. Besides…writing “safe” characters isn’t my
strong suit. My other books have Lucifer
as your sympathetic male lead.
But, I do worry that I’ll get hate mail someday for the
topics I address…but I can’t write my characters any other way. They are who they are, and they’ll love
whoever they’ll love.
Wastes is peopled with a wide array of characters and I admit I
love them all. When writing up your characters do you use characteristics of
people you know or have met in your own life?
Yes, but I limit it to the side characters. My main characters are generally wholly made
up.
When I do, do it, I take it a bit further than borrowing characteristics. I write people I know into the story. It’s a fun game on my part, because I
generally tell my character influences who they are in the story. That way they get attached to them and I can
harass them by threatening their character in the story. I suppose that’s mean, but it’s always meant
to be fun and people seem to enjoy it.
The real examples of that don’t show up until books two,
three, and four in the Wastes series: Wastes
Away; Waste Not, Want Not; Wasting Time.
There you start to get characters inspired by my friends, my sister, my
parents, and even my cat. Hunters are
just big cats after all.
I’m a big Star Wars
fan and really enjoyed the references in Wastes
of Space. What inspired you to add that element to your series?
I think I was maybe several dozen pages into the story when
it happened. I was over at a friend’s
house playing table top dice games (nerd here).
One of my friends was considering running a Star Wars game next. My
friends started talking about the extended Star
Wars universe, like ancient history and post movies stuff. I was familiar with the original three
movies, but not the other information.
As the conversation went past an hour and into a second hour, I realized
I wanted to write a character (or set of characters) that was as into Star Wars
as these guys. I think it makes sense
for my American astronauts, who’ve been training since they were children, to
be huge Star Wars fans. The concept went from there and expanded from
Rake, to the squad, and now their love of Star
Wars colors the whole series. I play
around with the quotes and their Star
Wars call signs a lot.
From your blog posts,
I gather you are working on another book in the Wastes series, any idea on a proposed release date, or when you
would like to have it released by?
Books 1 through 6 are written. Right now, I’m working on two things:
finishing book 7 (Wasted), and
proofing book 3 (Waste Not, Want Not). I’m looking to have Waste Not, Want Not out this summer, hopefully late August. My other project is Wasted. It is the biggest
book I’ve written and it’s not done at nearly 300k word count. I’m slowly chugging away at that one. I like to have a large chunk of material
between what’s ready to be read by readers and what I’m actually writing. It takes the stress off me.
I read that Wastes of Space is not your only
published work, can you tell me about the Morningstar
series?
The Morningstar
Trilogy is a set of three books: Morningstar,
Evenstar, and Daystar. It is a dark
comedy, much like Wastes, but instead of aliens, it’s angels. The basic concept is that Lucifer Morningstar
and his lover, Ladriam Evenstar, were parted long ago and she was
imprisoned. That imprisonment started
the war in Heaven. Losing the war,
Lucifer was cast down to Earth along with the Archangels that had sided with
him in their attempt to free her.
Fast-forward to today and Ladriam escapes Heaven, but loses her body and
memories. She’s reborn in a human,
Dahlia, and goes through her life up until twenty-five not really knowing anything
other than her constant dreams and nightmares about angels. In book one, an angel falls and tells Lucifer
of her escape, the pair meet again, hijinks ensue, and there is plenty of
violence as the Heavenly Hosts are still out looking for their escapee. Overall, I keep the book lighthearted,
because books two and three can get quite dark.
It’s a lot like Wastes
in terms of characters that are not the norm.
My fallen angels are ultra-violent, but they have a huge soft sweet spot
for Dahlia. They like shopping, baking
cookies, partying, murdering humans, assaulting each other, and generally
causing mayhem. It’s different from Wastes in that instead of having Ravil
keeping a secret from everyone else, in Morningstar
all the other characters are keeping Dahlia’s real identity a secret from
her…lest she freak out. Books two and three
dive into the ramping up of the war against Heaven, the return of their lost
powers, and some serious battles with Archangels.
How long would you
say you have been writing, and was writing something you knew you always wanted
to pursue?
I’ve been writing since I was eleven or twelve, but I didn’t
start to consider it something I could do for real until I was seventeen or
eighteen. Even once I’d realized it, it
still took me a good six to seven years to finish one book, but once that damn broke,
I haven’t looked back.
Who are some authors
you read that you feel really inspire you in your own writing?
Terry Pratchett, Storm Constantine, Tad Williams, Neal
Stephenson, and Philip Pullman.
Bio:
I am a writer and a University of Washington graduate living
in Western Washington. I studied Comparative Religion and now I work at a bank,
writing in all of my spare time.
I write what I enjoy reading/watching – which is
fantasy/sci-fi with dark humor and a bit of romance. What I consider romance
however is to some…a bit off (and kinked out). And when I say dark humor I mean
black. But I always have lighthearted moments (I do not believe a story should
be all one way or another). Gotta spice things up!
Speaking of…I like to write stories that cater to all sexual
preferences in one story (as opposed to just writing gay/lesbian lit, etc). I
have your typical male-female romances. I have male-male, female-female,
transgender, bi-sexual, sub-dom, etc. This is mostly due to the fact that
well…1. I like writing about it. 2. I see it in my everyday life. 3. I like
having a well-rounded cast of characters from all walks of life.
I also love making cocktails and I’m a certified bartender
in the state of Washington.
I want to send out a big thanks to Darcy for allowing me to read and review
Wastes of Space and for taking time out of her busy schedule to answer what I thought was a few simple questions, but I think I really made her think! Glad she took the time and didn't call me crazy! Thanks for being a good sport and I look forward to reading more of your novels soon.
