My guest this week on Amberkatze's Book Blog is author Chris Howard. With the debut book Seaborn
out on shelves this writer is just getting started. Seaborn is original and new. You can read my review here and find out more about the author here.Keep reading because Chris has donated two amazing prizes for this weeks contest and I am offering a third prize. So that means 3 people can win something this week!
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Amber - Welcome to Amberkatze's Book Blog, Chris! I have had the pleasure of reading your book but I am sure a lot of guests haven't. Maybe you can start things off by telling us all about Seaborn
?Chris - I'd put Seaborn
somewhere between urban fantasy and epic fantasy, with the high concept being Fank Herbert's Dune meets The Little Mermaid. It's also a contemporary fantasy. There are two interweaving plotlines, both about the loss of freedom, but two different ways of looking at it. Corina Lairsey's a college student from California whose body is taken over by an old seaborn sorcerer, and she must fight, bargain, do what she has to do to get her self back. Kassandra comes from the sea, but grew up in exile in Nebraska--about as far from the sea as her captors could arrange. She's back in the water, and although she's dangerously powerful, she doesn't make every choice in her own head, and other powers inside her have their own agendas and make her do things she doesn't want to. Seaborn is really about how these two characters struggle to get back what belongs to each of them, their own minds, bodies, powers of choice.Amber - Seaborn
is so original! How did you come up with the idea?Chris - It was a long time in the making. The Seaborn world, culture, and story--mainly Kassandra's story--originally came out some writing lessons I ran for my daughter in 2003 and 2004. My purpose was to teach her everything I knew about writing fiction. I even created writing lessons, some of which were published online, on blogs, and in Visions: A Resource for Writers. I went through plotting exercises, character development, worldbuilding, explaining the whys and hows and how-much-is-necessaries. From there, over the last five years, it grew in my own mind, in notes, sketches, and into the writing of two more novels.
Amber - Is Seaborn
your first piece of work as an author or have you written anything else?
Chris - Seaborn's my first novel to sell, but it's my fifth completed novel, and I've since completed two more, Seaborn's sequel, Sea Throne, and it's prequel, a young adult fantasy, Saltwater Witch. I also write short fiction, with several appearing in online zines, and I won the Heinlein Centennial Short Story Contest in 2007 (amateur division, because I had no pro sales). Amber - What do you do in your spare time and how do you relax? Any hobbies you want to tell us about?
Chris - I actually write in my spare time, along with drawing and painting in watercolors and digital formats. See my blog (http://the0phrastus.typepad.com) and my portfolio page for my art and other stuff I do. (http://the0phrastus.typepad.com/photos/portfolio)
Amber - Did you have to do alot of research to write Seaborn?
Chris - Years of it, if you total it all up, but I'm not the kind of writer that needs to do years of research before writing a story. They go hand in hand, building as I go. I have boxes of printed stuff, books, and GBs of documents, images, video, that went into my head while writing Seaborn and the other seaborn stories.
Amber - What is next? Will there be more books in the Seaborn world? Any other projects you are working on?
Chris - A few things. Besides the sequel (hoping to be out in 2009 sometime) and the prequel (under consideration with a different publisher)--both are complete, I'm working on a graphic novel version of Saltwater Witch, also a novel about cooking and magic, and the occasional short story when the plot strikes me.
Amber - What books do you like to read when you have the chance? Any favourite authors?
Chris - I read more fantasy than SF, but I love both, and I never have enough time to read. I have an ever growing stack of books next to the nightstand--too tall and hazardous to put _on_ the nightstand. I have many favorite authors, but here are a few: Connie Willis (Went through a Willis read-fest over the summer, and reading Passage right now), Neal Stephenson, Caitlín R. Kiernan, Richard Morgan, all for very different reasons; some are influencers on my writing, others write books I like to read over and over. Amber - Did you always want to be a writer? Do you write full time?
Chris - No. I always wanted to be a marine biologist. It didn't work out. I'm a software engineer, but I have painted and written stories since I was a kid, got my first reject from F&SF in 1981--and nothing but since--latest reject from F&SF last month. I write a lot, spend about half my free time writing, and I've managed to complete at least a novel a year over the last five or six years. And no plans to slow down.
Amber - You are stranded on a desert island. What 5 things would you like to have with you?
Chris - I must have pencils, pens and paper (can I bundle these into one thing?). An umbrella--I'm assuming the tropics and some decent weather here. Any copper or other good conductive metals available? Okay, maybe that's one of my five things: two hundred tons of spooled -16 gauge copper wire. With that, some palm trees, and consistent tidal forces, I bet I could have hydroelectric power going on this island in no time. Things number 4 and 5: a really nice desk lamp and my notebook computer. Can't live without the last.
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Contest Time!
There are 3 prizes to be won this week so 3 lucky people will be walking away with one of the following -
A signed copy of Seaborn
from Chris Howard!A 5x7 (13 x 18cm)print of one of Chris Howard's latest watercolors!
A copy of Seaborn
from moi!How to enter -
To enter this weeks contest post here on this thread telling me what kind of sea creature you would be and why. No sea animal - no entry! I would love to be a dolphin...not sure why but I have always liked them and it seems like the perfect choice ;)To get an extra entry you can post about this contest somewhere on the net. Please make sure to post the link to your entry so can see you have indeed posted it!
Contest is open till October the 19th! That is next Sunday and I will take entries until 4pm CET.
Enjoy!
Labels: Author Interviews, Chris Howard, Contests
At 12 October 2008 at 08:45, 
shaunesay
Thank you for your visit Chris! I really enjoyed your interview and I look forward to giving Seaborn a try, either by win or buy! ;)
Dolphins are super popular aren't they? I think it's because they're just so photogenic with such great personalities, they're not scary predators, or sad little victims most of the time. So yep, I'm with the group, I'd love to be a dolphin too. I always wanted to go to the dolphin show at the amusement park, and loved Darwin in the Seaquest show. But just to be an over achiever, I'll pick a certain type, I'll be a Commerson's Dolphin, I saw these in a Sea World show with Shamu one time and have liked them ever since, they're just cute, and so color coordinated with Shamu! lol!
I like the way Yan thinks. Octopus would be nice, but I'm going to go with the obvious and say a mermaid. Being able to swim like a fish and still have arms to hold things (like books) with would be awesome. Plus, in most mermaid stories, they can shapeshift to two legs, so I would be able to walk the land and swim in the ocean. Talk about luxury.
I've been hearing so many good things about Seaborn, that I really need to get my hands on a copy. I really need to get my Review TBR pile down.
At 12 October 2008 at 18:12, Caitlin Hoy
I would love to be a sea serpent like in legends and myths but since I'm not really sure if they exist anymore (science hasn't figured out all the different animals and species in the ocean because its so big) I guess I would love to be a humpback whale. I just love them, they're my favorite sea creature. They're very family oriented creatures and also very gentle.
Caitlin
ckh988@aol.com
At 12 October 2008 at 18:26, Becca
I would like to be a squid but not a regular squid one of the giant squids that they think fight with Sperm Whales. I’m fascinated by them and love to watch all those shows where people go searching for them. There is something scary about them but something incredibly cool too.
rebecca.bradeen(at)verizon(dot)net
Thank you, Amber! This is great.
Wow, some great choices for what you'd want to be in the sea, too. I love octopuses and squid, but I'd go with Caitlin and be a whale, probably a humpback. I was off the northeast coast last month watching humpback whales feeding, nursing young, breaching--jumping almost entirely out of the water, whales doing some of the most amazing things I've seen in my life.
Posted a bunch of my whale pics on Flickr here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/9087491@N08/
Chris
Oh, mermaids / witches / a possession theme that, could be a metaphor for the internal struggle to change aspects of ones self and, could offer the prospect of a journey of strengthening self discovery, this book sounds fascinating! So here I’m joining in this contest.
A sea creature I would like to be… tempting to say straight off a dolphin but on reflection though I’ve never seen one in the wild I like the idea of being a sea otter. Having the ability to swim swiftly and flexibly would be bliss, yet also being able to scamper around on land would be fine. While I also understand otters like to congregate in family groups which would be convivial and that brilliantly clever business of lying around on one’s back with a wee stone balanced on your tummy as you crack shellsfish open for lunch seems remarkably clever. Oh yeah, and a fur coat of one’s one, the only way to wear one I’d agree. All that further points to a sea otter as the sea creature for me to be!
rainbow3
http://www.bookcrossing.com/mybookshelf/rainbow3
At 13 October 2008 at 05:10, Shelbycat
I would like to be a dugong or sea cow, i love the way they calmly make their way across the sun dappled sea bed munching away. Also love the fact that they have little toenails (found out while studying a mammals OU course). Interesting fact about sea cows is that many people think they are the original mermaids seen by sailors long ago!
At 13 October 2008 at 05:43, Patricia Altner
When my son was between 4 and 7 he had this obsession with dolphins and whales. I used to be able to name all of them, but not anymore. Still I remember one particular type that I truly loved because of the sweet pleasant face - the beluga whale. If reincarnated as a sea creature that's what I would like to be.
At 14 October 2008 at 13:27, Book Sp(l)ot
So my first answer was mermaid but since I think I'm supposed to go more animal-y I think I would be a sea turtle...I love how they live to be so old and the way they come back to the same beach to lay their eggs that they were born on...And I think swimming across entire oceans would be lovely :) (and relaxing in a way I could very much use this week)
At 16 October 2008 at 01:22, sclement
now there are so many picks to choose form... the sea is filled whit incredible creatures. And I do love the sea.
I would pick something big: a Whale, because thats sometging definitly poetic, simbolic and inspiring about them. Or a giant squid or octupus, those who live on the abysses of the sea and we only glimpse when they drfith ashore after dead. they are powerfull and mysterius
by Kelley Armstrong
I think I would want to be a dolphin. I've always had an obsession with them, by bathroom is done in dolpins, I have figurines everywhere, and I have a tattoo :-) They're just so beautiful and graceful :-)