ML Brennan was kind enough to take time out of her schedule to take part in this e-mail interview with Rob Bedford. Special thanks to Penguin (Ace/Roc/DAW) publicist Nita Basu for helping to facilitate this interview.
For readers who aren’t familiar with the books in the Generation V / Fortitude Scott series, would you mind providing your hook for the series?
A: Sure! Slacker millennial with a degree in film theory which leads to a series of dispiriting minimum wage jobs is also a vampire, and a vegetarian. Despite his reluctance, he gets pulled into the family business, and ends up partnered with a foxy kitsune shapeshifter, and they fight crime. That’s the elevator pitch. 
Why “M.L.”?
A: Well, the books are told from the first-person point of view of Fortitude, who is a guy. Urban fantasy tends to skew toward female protagonists (which is pretty awesome, actually), and lately has had a lot of crossover with paranormal romance, which this most definitely wasn’t. The publisher had a concern that seeing a female name on the book cover might result in some readers passing the series by based on assumptions of what it would probably contain, so they asked me if I minded using a gender-neutral acronym. Given that everyone at Roc had a whole lot more experience selling books than I did (this was my first sale, after all), I took their advice and made the change. And, ultimately, I think they were correct on their assessment.
Why vampires and how are your vampires different from all the other fanged blood suckers on the shelves?
A: Ah, the big question. There’s no denying that we’re definitely at a saturation point of vampires in the genre right now, and that the whole Twilight franchise casts a very long shadow in terms of assumptions about vampires in literature. That was actually what interested me so much in using vampires in the first place – the series began as a kind of thought experiment about how I would construct vampires in a way that would make them completely different from everything else I was seeing. So, first step was that instead of sexy or sparkly, I wanted them to be scary. I wanted serious predators rather than a cuddly love object. I ended up making this happen with how I built the vampires – rather than relying on magic, I tried to build them on a biological level, and to do that I ended up doing quite a lot of research into both apex predators and blood parasites. I think I’m probably the only writer who can say that her vampires are based on great white sharks and ticks. By focusing on this area, and also making sure that my vampires had a life-cycle and reproduction rate that was comparable to humans in a wolf:bunny ratio, I was able to take myself in a direction that ended up being gritty, messy, and also fairly distinct than what other people were doing.
How did you arrive at the name of “Fortitude Scott” for your protagonist?
A: It ended up happening because I was naming his siblings. Fortitude’s sister was born during the Revolutionary War, and his brother was born during the Civil War. I wanted their names to reflect the periods that they came from, which is why I named the sister Prudence. Problems started developing when I was naming the brother, though – I was looking through lists of Civil War soldiers, but their names were either pretty generic (“Joshua” was popular then, and it’s still popular now, for instance) or just struck me as hideous. So I was struggling with that, and then I hit on the possibility of using the sister’s name as the start of a trend, so that all of them would have “virtue” names that would also reflect parts of their characters. This led to the brother being named Chivalry, and also gave Fortitude his own moniker, which I quite like, actually, both because of the sound of it, the implications, and because I enjoy the nickname of “Fort.” If you look into virtue names, it’s actually a pretty fun area – some of the early settlers to our country gave their children some rather awkward monikers.
Three books published in about a year and a half…that’s pretty impressive and shows the faith your publisher Roc has in you. How much of book 2 (Iron Night) and book 3 (Tainted Blood) were finished when book 2 Generation V published?
A: I got extremely lucky in that regard – the books were initially slated to be released one per year, but after Generation V got some really good advance reviews, Roc moved up the schedule. Things worked out pretty well, though, because when the first book was published in May 2013, I had already completely written and delivered Iron Night, so I wasn’t feeling the pressure there. I did feel it a bit on Tainted Blood, because that was due in the fall of 2013, and by then I was seeing some reactions to the first book, which was a very new experience. It was a little stressful, but very worth it!
How much has changed (if any) of your plans for Tainted Blood since you’ve completed and published the first two books in the series?
A: A few things that I’d initially planned to do in Tainted Blood (which I can’t even hint at, because they would be HUGE spoilers!) when I submitted the original proposal for the trilogy got moved back. I realized that I wanted more time to lay some groundwork for a few big events, so I took them out and just kept seeding and prepping. None of the books have cliffhangers, but there were some big and ongoing plotlines that I decided that I really didn’t want to rush into.
Book 3, Tainted Blood is publishing in November, how many more novel-length stories of these characters will you be telling?
A: Right now I’m contracted for a fourth book in the series, which I’m writing right now, but I do have several of the major plotlines planned out to a sixth book. I’ll have to see whether the readers are interested in reading more about Fortitude Scott, which I really hope so, since I’mpretty excited about a lot of the ideas that I have going.
Tainted Blood is publishing just after Halloween, which for a vampire novel is a nice bit of serendipity. What was your favorite costume you wore on Halloween?
A: It is pretty fun and seasonal. Ooh, favorite costume… Well, when I was about eight I dressed up as a severed head. My mother took a big packing box and cut out a hole for my head, then we taped a plastic tablecloth to the box, along with plastic utensils, a cup, and we cut the middle out of a paper plate and put that around my neck. It was a pretty great costume, but I have to say – very tough to go Trick or Treating in.
How does being an adjunct professor influence your writing?
A: I don’t teach any creative writing courses (those generally go to the full-timers, who also get sweet perks like health insurance and reliable employment), but lately I’ve been teaching some introductory literature courses, which is pretty fun for me since I make sure that I assign things that I’ve never gotten a chance to read before. I like being exposed to different authors, and it helps me as a writer to keep trying to push myself and grow. Just so far this semester I’ve gotten to read some Katherine Anne Porter, which was completely new to me, plus Edith Wharton and F. Scott Fitzgerald stories that I’d never seen. Even though they aren’t in the genre that I write in, I can still learn a lot from seeing how other writers use plot or characterization, and I enjoy it a great deal.
Your main character is beat up by Bruins fans at the start of the novel, what do you have against Bruins fans?
A: I think it came down to the shape of hockey jerseys. I can’t help but smile every time I picture my main character getting mugged by Bruins fans – also, even just saying it makes me crack up a little.
In seriousness, part of it was to help root the story into its sense of place. Red Sox clothing and hats are certainly what a lot of people think about when they picture people who live in New England (with, admittedly, good reason), but I liked the idea of giving a bit of a nod to something else that’s seen in Rhode Island. Also, there’s that classic scene in a lot of sci-fi and fantasy of the muggers surrounding the protagonist, and that’s when it’s revealed that the protagonist has super awesome powers, and the next thing you know, the muggers are just little piles on the ground. Well, I liked the idea of having that setup, and then not going into the direction that’s been so clichéd at this point. It was also my way of really establishing a character arc for Fortitude and showing that he was this average guy – if Bruins fans with mugging on their minds surrounded him, he was in for a mugging. I had a lot of fun with that scene.
Vampires seem to be what draws the readers into your books, your elves seem like what keeps folks reading. What other fantasy character tropes will be skewered on the M.L. Brennan barbecue?
A: I had quite a lot of fun with those elves! Between the vampires and the elves I think I have some of the biggest tropes covered, and in the third book I mostly incorporate myths that are a little less common. I wanted to bring in another shapeshifter race, for example, but I was honestly hesitant to bring in werewolves. Once you have vampires in the house, werewolves are pushing it, plus I’ve seen so many variations on them in the past (many of which are very, very good!) that I wanted to go in a different direction and be able to draw on different sources. That’s why Tainted Blood has werebears in it. I also brought in a rusalka, and the ghouls get some more attention.
Do you have any rituals, like Paul Sheldon in Stephen King’s Misery, you go through once you finish writing the book?
A: If I had to name the worst book to read before going to a convention or doing an author event, it would be Misery. Next to Desperation, I find it one of King’s creepier books.
One thing that I always end up doing when I’m in the last big push on writing a book is taking all the fun stuff off of my computer, particularly computer games. So whenever I finish a manuscript, the first thing I do is basically spend two weeks solid just playing the games that I had to deny myself for the last two or three months. I also get to watch a lot more TV, and read more books as well. I’m not sure if it’s much of a ritual, but there you go!
