Author Introduction: Gregory Frost

It's time for another Author Introduction. Gregory Frost latest caught my attention in my last visit to the bookstore, and since we're both part of SFNovelists, I thought it only courteous to ask him to stop by and visit. So, without further ado:

"Please Allow Me to Introduce Myself . . .

Gregory Frost here, author of SHADOWBRIDGE [Amazon] and its sequel, LORD TOPHET [Amazon], both of which have of late been receiving a great deal of acclaim. http://www.gregoryfrost.com/pages/shadowbridge.html A couple of examples: Paul Witcover in SciFi Weekly "His pages bristle with the kind of lively energy I associate with Miyazaki films, and his delight in the stories his characters hear and transform and retell is palpable and contagious." And Fantasy Book Critic: "...not only is Lord Tophet...a richly rewarding experience, it is also one of the few must-read fantasies of the year."






These two, a duology, tell the story of Leodora, a young shadow-puppeteer, as she travels the world of Shadowbridge. It's a fantasy world of vast oceans covered by infinite spirals of bridge spans. Each span represents a cultural reference point to our world that has changed over time, commingling elements of myth, folktale, fairy tale--the sinister and the comic. The inhabitants of Shadowbridge have their creation myths, their tales of how Death came into the world, and more, stories that sound much like those we know, but aren't any longer. As she travels the spans, Leodora learns these stories, but also through her adventures becomes one--and that is the story these two volumes tell.





I've enjoyed very much creating and working in this universe. It's been a strange ride. In some ways the time and research that went into these two books is akin to the extensive research that preceded my earlier fantasies, TAIN and REMCELA, two books based on the Irish epic Táin Bó Cuailnge. I fell into these worlds, which I suppose is what I do, and probably what a lot of fantasy writers do. I immerse in the place, and there have been days when I emerge from a long writing session and for a moment almost don't know where I am. That's happened less frequently than the "writer's high," that endorphin glow that some writers describe after a good writing session.

With these two I've come back to fantasy novels after a long spell away (my first, LYREC, was published in 1984, and the two Irish novels mentioned above were also published in the late 1980s). I wrote a "Dickian" science fiction novel, THE PURE COLD LIGHT, in the '90s. The rest of that decade, I just wrote short fiction, much of which has been collected in ATTACK OF THE JAZZ GIANTS & OTHER STORIES [Amazon] from Golden Gryphon Press (2005) http://www.gregoryfrost.com/pages/AOTJG.html

In 2002 Tor brought out FITCHER'S BRIDES [Amazon], an historical thriller that's my recasting of the Bluebeard fairy tale for Terry Windling's series of retellings. http://www.gregoryfrost.com/pages/FitchersBrides.html. A great deal of historical research went into that book as well. I am enamored of research, yet at the same time not everything I write requires it, or requires it so extensively. Some years ago I was on a convention panel with my friend, Jeffrey Ford, and I blathered on about the joys of research. Jeff sat patiently by till I shut up, then said that for his magnificent novel The Physiognomy he hadn't done a lick of research. He made the world up entirely. I realized so had I, twice, for LYREC and for PURE COLD LIGHT. So now I'm a little more cautious when I say "Oh, yeah, you gotta do the research." Well, not exactly. More like, you have to know whether or not you need it. The real rule is, there are no short-cuts. (Oh, and Ford did extensive research for his more recent novel, The Girl in the Glass, so he, too, puts in the effort that the work requires.)

So there you have it. Some writers are comfortable working in one vein. I'm not. But then I'm also one of those writers who writes to find out what I think, and also in order to discover who these people are whose lives I'm either concocting or invading. If writing is discovery, it's also a lifelong discovery, and I go sailing along, bound to the mast with my ears open to hear the Sirens as they sing . . . which probably means I'm at least half mad. Just so long as the other half picks up the check, I should be all right.

If anyone would like to continue this--or open up a further conversation, Joshua indicates you can post here, and I'll move it over to my LJ pages http://frostokovich.livejournal.com/ if we want to keep it going (so as to keep him from going mad, too).

One more item for those who are interested: Numerous tales are mentioned throughout the two Shadowbridge novels that don't end up being told by the end. Del Rey, the publisher, has mentioned that they would like to have a new tale to go in the mass market edition (as a separate story) when it's released next year. So I'm asking those who've read the books to vote on what untold tale they would most like to see. Vote early and often.

Thanks for your time.
gf"

( Gregory Frost's Other Books )