Tony Ballantyne is now out with the second book in his Dream World series that started with Dream London. We have talked to him about the new book, Dream Paris.
For those not yet familiar with your Dream World series can you tell us a bit about it?
Dream London is about a London that has been sold off to powers from the Dream World. The city changes a little every night, the people change a little every day. Dream Paris follows the people who sailed down the rivers from Dream London to other worlds, and never came back
What new challenges did you set for yourself with Dream Paris? How do you feel about the end result?
The biggest challenge was staying true to the feel of Dream London. It would have been so easy to write this as a straight book, but I wanted it to follow the same rules: first person, linear plot, short time span. Given the nature of the Dream World there was also the temptation to allow anything to happen for the sake of the plot. I was determined to stick to the Dream Logic set up in the first book.
Can you give us some insight into your main protagonist, Anna?
Anna is clever, brave and resourceful and she knows everything. She’s a great person, but she’s not quite grown up yet. There’s a typically Austen line in Northanger Abbey about the protagonist: “her mind about as ignorant and uninformed as the female mind at seventeen usually is.” That’s definitely not true of Anna, but she’s not as aware as she thinks she is.
The covers for both Dream London and Dream Paris are rather unique and Joey Hi-Fi won the BSFA Award for Best Artwork for the Dream London cover. Can you tell us a bit about the covers and how they came about? How involved have you been in the process?
You can imagine how delighted I was when I heard that Joey Hi-Fi was doing the cover art!
For both covers, Joey emailed and asked me for descriptions of the cities and if there was anything I’d like included. I don’t like to be too specific with artists, I’m well aware that their visual imagination is far better than mine. The only two things that I specified for Dream Paris was that the Eiffel Towers had to be wrapped up and that Francis had to have a wire trailing from his back. As Joey finished the Dream Paris artwork before I finished the book, I had the picture set as my desktop background as I was writing. Some of the descriptions in the book were actually copied from Joey’s artwork, not the other way around!
Thinking back, how did you start writing? Was there a particular book or moment in your life that spurred you on?
I’ve written stories for almost as long as I’ve read them. There are are number of books that inspired me to write, it was probably reading my first Diana Wynne Jones book that really spurred me on.
When you work on a new idea, do you tend to work from one key idea that you then refine, or do you spend a long time maturing ideas and mixing them together until you find something that works?
I think about stories all the time, running them through in my head and swapping things around. Over the years I’ve picked up the instinct to know when a story is ready. There reaches a point when I know that a story will work. I also know how long it’s going to be: a short story/novella/novel. That’s usually around the time I start writing.
You’re writing both Fantasy and Science Fiction. Do you have a different approach to writing one vs. the other?
No! I’ve written about this many times (see my blog: tonyballantyne.com), but the essence is that I just follow the characters and see where they go…
What has been most surprising to you in your writing and publishing career?
My first sale. I got so used to rejection when I was starting out that it came as real surprise to find someone had accepted my work.
You also write shorter fiction. How different do you find writing short stories and shorter fiction rather than novels? Do you have a preference?
I always think that writing a novel is more relaxing, it gives you time to take in the scenery. My preference keeps changing. At the moment I’m in a short story mood, but I don’t know how long that will last.
Would you care to pass on any advice to writers starting out? What was the best advice you were ever given when starting out?
My advice: write something everyday and join a writer’s group. I didn’t know any writers when I started out, I had to make it up as I went along. Things are different now, there’s lots of good advice out there (and some bad advice). Find someone you trust and listen!
How do you go about the marketing aspect and especially related to your online presence? Anything you’ve seen work better than other things?
I’ve got a blog but that’s about it. I know marketing’s important, but there’s only so much time in the day. And then there’s the day job, which leads on to the next question.
Most writers have some other thing they’re passionate about, what’s yours?
Education. If you want change the world, become a teacher. Whingeing on social media about the unfairness of life doesn’t solve anything. Take a look at my tech blog for more on this: http://tonyballantyne.com/tech
What’s next? Do you have more exciting new projects you’re working on at the moment?
I’m just finishing off a couple of short stories and then I’m embarking on a Space Opera. I’m very excited about that. Some people may be interested to hear that there will be robots involved…
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Interview by Dag Rambraut – SFFWorld.com © 2015
