Showing posts with label Interviews. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Interviews. Show all posts

Monday, February 20, 2017

Jerome Stueart Interview - Author of Angels of Our Better Beasts

It is not intuitive to seek beauty in art deemed grotesque/weird, but most authors who produce horror/fantasy actually are usually (a) serious about their craft, and (b) driven my strange muses. These interviews engage contemporary authors & artists on the theme of "Art & Beauty in Weird/Fantasy Fiction." This one features Jerome Stueart, author of many books including The Angels of Our Better Beasts S E Review (Link)Let's learn about his muses...and his Better Beasts!


Jerome Stueart
The Angels of Our Better Beasts
Jerome Stueart is a writer and illustrator whose work has appeared in Lightspeed's Queers Destroy Science Fiction, Fantasy, Tor.com, Geist, Joyland, Icarus, Tessaracts anthologies, and other journals and magazines. He is a Clarion 2007 grad, a Lambda Literary fellow, a Milton Fellow and a Fulbright fellow--meaning he's a queer science fiction/fantasy writer of faith who has dual citizenship in Canada.  He co-edited Wrestling with Gods and Imaginarium 4.  His next book is a novel, One Nation Under Gods, from ChiZine Publications in June of 2018.  His Patreon with loaded extras (illustrations and scenes) can be found under JeromeWStueart.  He most recently moved from the Yukon Territory, and now lives in Dayton, OH.   


SEL: The Angels of Our Better Beasts invites readers to reconsider what it means to be a human (angel or beast). Most are weird, fantasy and sci-fi tales, and the relationships span the gamut from lemming-to-researcher, to husband-to husband, and wife-to-husband, etc. The variety is great and writing evocative. Please identify/discuss your own angels and beasts. Are these your muses?

JS: Thanks, Seth.  I think animals are the muses of many people---they seem so wise (because they can't talk) and so we give them the words we think they should say.  I've often believed that writers who include animals in their works usually make them wiser than the people.  I was also one of those kids that went and made friends with your dog before I made friends with your kids or you... I felt very comfortable with a pet.  As for beasts, yeah, growing up mine was a werewolf.  I used to think of him as a mentor---if I could just find him, or he find me.  I think I still feel compelled to explore the relationship we have to beasts--both animal and monster--in stories.  Are these our way of trying to reach a higher plane of wisdom or morality?  Or our way of trying to escape civilization and become more wild?  Certainly our pets give us a bridge to the animal kingdom--and many stories that have animals as a focus try to make us better people through those animals.  Maybe our monsters are trying to help us too.
Select Better Beasts by Jerome Stueart 

SEL: You illustrated the whole book too! How does your drawing and writing work processes interplay?

JS: I usually do the illustrations after I do the story.  In fact, I mapped out the illustrations on a sheet to see if I could do something interesting with them when they are together.  Kind of evoke different themes.  I tried that!  LOL.  I had the first column focus on inanimate objects: the box of ashes, the bottle of wine, the heart on the table, the gold; the second column do a close up of people in relationship; the third was to show movement; the fourth got all messed up--it was supposed to be about body parts: hand, foot, and well, a canyon and large gorilla got in there [see inset image].  So that failed.  But I still think they work in harmony somehow. 

Whenever I do illustrations I try to capture the essence of the story:  wonder for "For a Look At New Worlds" and disembodied horror for "The Moon Over Tokyo" and the weird juxtaposition of a werewolf playing the banjo, not necessarily a scene from the story (as the werewolf doesn't play the banjo in his werewolf form).  I also had fun with imitating famous works of art or poems.  My box of ashes tries to echo Keats' "Ode to a Grecian Urn" and the illustration for Bondsmen is "James Bond descending a staircase" --- hey, I try to keep it fun.

I had the most trouble trying to illustrate "You Will Draw..."  because I wanted to emphasize the relationship--but once I had the figures, I didn't want to muddy the background.  So I settled on a sort of blank canvas, or window behind them.  The story might be better served, but I didn't want to give away any surprises. And doing the art of the main character--who is a famous artist--felt daunting.  To pretend to be one of his illustrations, my art needed to be amazing, and I wasn't at his caliber--so I settled for a portrait of him.     

Illustration Map - Jerome Stueart


SEL: Are you secretly a changeling or hybrid/chimera?

JS: Well, technically, I'm a changeling because I'm adopted (if you're referring to the babies switched by fairies idea), but I think of myself probably more as a chimera--a mixture of things and ideas.  I'm not one kind of writer, and I don't have one kind of theme or style.  This collection is me trying to show all sorts of ways to tell a story.  I'm going to be hell for an agent someday, but I love trying new things and seeing what kinds of stories and styles I can do.  

SEL: Okay this one will make more sense for those who already read the book, but here goes a question posed by yourself: “Young painters might be asking if there is a place for art in politics… What do you say to them about the nature of true art and its neutral place outside the quagmire of human rivalry?”

Auguste Renault - by Jerome Stueart
JS: The interviewer in the story is trying to ask the question: should artists be political?  Should art try to influence society?  And my character, Auguste Renault, just laughs and you never hear his answer.  The story, though, is his answer.  He truly believes that one should use fame to help others out.  Much of art is political.  Is ALL art political?  Well, Renault was doing portrait painting and paintings of cities for most of his career.  I made him like the Sargent of his era, and Sargent did a lot of portraits of the wealthy and of his friends, and some of it was scandalous.  He painted actors!  At a time when having one of his exquisite portraits meant you had "made it" into the wealthy class, he deemed to give them away to authors, friends, actors and actresses--he used his talent to give equal status to rich and poor.  Renault turns his art to the miners of Ganymede--and at first this is seen as it is with most artists: that their subjects are the poor, and they are making a statement to remind the rich of the poor.  But in Renault's case, his subjects got their paintings for free, and the rich are upset that they can't see Renault's work--or that his work starts becoming the only source of news when the strike is not covered by the media.  

In my own opinion, art is an excellent way of speaking truth---sometimes the perfect illustration encapsulates a change that is needed, a flaw that is nearly hidden, or even model a way of being.  It is the purpose of art to bring truth and beauty and yes, controversy, and wisdom to society.  There is a place for beautiful flowers and landscapes to bring peace to a troubled world--but isn't that influencing society too?  

SEL: At World Con 2016 in Columbus OH (Writer-Artist Panel coverage link) you shared the history of Angels Of Our Better Beasts. Can you recap that here? Did the drawings come before the tales?

JS: I wrote the stories over the last ten years or so.  I found the stories I loved best--the ones that seemed to work--had a beast in them, or a monster, or something someone might think was a monster.  Something that made us afraid, or made us wonder, or connected us to animals in the sense that we wanted to listen to them.  So I put the collection together--most of it and proposed it to ChiZIne and they liked it.  I then wrote a couple of stories for it, and decided to illustrate it too.  So definitely the illustrations came afterwards--and that process is something I spell out above.  

Jerome Stueart's Better Beasts - for fans!

SEL: You have been known to draw personalized “beasts” for fans. Is that like doing a tarot card reading?

JS: HAHA.  No.  But it was enlightening to me what they wanted as a beast.  And I think it was enlightening to them too.  Many just wanted to see their beasts "come to life" and so they had crazy wonderful requests.  It was a good way to build a rapport with my readers--or with people who just fellow beast-lovers!  Here are a few of those beasts people wanted.  

SEL: Do you find your own art “weird” or “beautiful”?   
JS: I think my work is weird, but I strive for beauty.  I strive for harmony and balance in composition.  Even as it is weird.  I do not always love my own art, but I do find I work hard at creating something that will be nice to look at.  Or a good illustration of the story.  In many ways my stories are trying to make the weird beautiful.  I want to move a reader to care about a beast, or to consider that the beasts are beautiful.  My vampires in "How Magnificent" are beautiful in their perfect takeover of the medical profession, their efficiency, their marketing.  My werewolf hopes that the beauty and power of his Christian music can overcome the horror of his mistakes, his primal nature.  He does not see anything redeeming about being the werewolf--only that it must be contained.  There is beauty in the mandalas of "For a Look at New Worlds" and in their fragility.  There's a lot of art in this book--- whether it's the young king who will be a better king because he is artistic, or the artist who tries to use his fame to help others, or the writers who try to make sense of their lives... so many of these stories are a statement on the place of art in the world.  

SEL: Any future endeavors to share?
JS: Well, I'm finishing up a story about sisters and their rival gods, and another one about a chef on a starship.  I'm also writing One Nation Under Gods--my alternate American history with religious nationalism--and two kids trying to escape to Canada.  You can see more about that on my Patreon page (https://www.patreon.com/jeromeWstueart).  For a couple of bucks you can see the illustrations I'm working on for this novel.  It comes out from ChiZine in June of 2018.  

Wednesday, July 20, 2016

Aona Series - Interview with Simon Williams




Simon Williams is the author of the Aona dark fantasy series, which is attracting growing acclaim for its fusion of different genres and atmospheric, character-driven narrative. He has also written "Summer's Dark Waters", a sci-fi / fantasy /supernatural novel aimed at young adults. The interview series of "Art & Beauty in Weird/Fantasy Fiction" engage contemporary authors & artists to reveal their muses, so let us learn more about the Aona series which was just concluded.

SEL #1) What is Aona?

SW: Picture a distant world, probably in the distant future, where most technology is no longer even a memory. A world which for a number of reasons is like no other. A world where two great powers will struggle for control. One of them has crossed great swathes of the known Existence to find this world, the other has controlled, nurtured and dominated it in one form or another since the dawn of known time. 
Thus two opposing, universal forces are preparing to destroy each other. One is an implacable, faceless destroyer of worlds- the other is the ancient master of all the races that live on this world- Aona. Caught in the midst of all this are the races of this world, human and non-human. Both supreme powers, in the simple terms of the Younger Races, are evil beyond comprehension. 
The story of Aona is not a fable of good versus evil. It's a tale of incomprehensible forces, survival, corruption, greed, betrayal, and above all else, the gradual realisation amongst the main characters that this war is not simply a struggle for one world but something far, far greater.


SEL #2) With Aona being dark fantasy; do you see any excerpt or book as "beautiful"? If so please give an example and explain.

SW: My work often seeks to combine striking beauty with stark horror. I don't actually think the two are that different at all sometimes. In my youth I often sought to describe in great detail and provide explanations for everything- but over time I've found that a sparse turn of phrase will often work far better if the reader has imagination and intelligence.

In terms of other authors' works that I would term "beautiful" some of the most achingly gorgeous and emotive prose I've ever read appears in Celia Dart Thornton's  Bitterbynde Trilogy and Crowthistle Chronicles.


SEL #3) I see from a previous interview that you have listed Clive Barker as an influence; he is known for being a graphic artist as well as a horror author.  Do you create art in other mediums than writing? If so, can we share a piece (illustrated/photo, or audio of music, etc.).

SW: Sadly I'm no artist- I do enjoy drawing (or doodling, in my case) from time to time, but I have no illusions whatsoever about my ability in that area. I can't draw or paint or do anything like that. Sometimes I think that's a shame because I can vividly imagine a certain scene in great detail and keep that exact image in my mind for a very long time- which would be really useful if I could draw or paint.

I play piano / keyboards and I have various compositions recorded although they're not really good enough to be shared. I even have the beginnings of a classical symphony that I had begun to create to work in tandem with the Aona books. That may sound pretentious but again I have no great illusions about the quality of my musical works. I think they're ok, but if something is just "ok" that means it isn't good enough to be shared with the world. This perhaps ties into the reason why my output has been quite lean- I have a number of unseen works, some of which are complete and others which are at various stages, which I feel are just not "right" (that's why they're unseen).

Luckily I have been able to collaborate with an artist friend of mine (her website is ankolie.com) on one of my books already (Summer's Dark Waters) and hope to on future works as well. Her vision matched mine so exactly for that book that it was astonishing.


SEL #4) Can you describe more about working with illustrator Ankolie? Any feedback about sharing the control of expressing "your world"?  

SW: It was a privilege and I certainly intend to work with her on future projects, particular those aimed at younger audiences which I feel benefit from more artwork. Ankolie managed to perfectly encapsulate the vision I had for my characters in Summer's Dark Waters, there was no need to adjust or change anything, which was remarkable.

SEL #5) Please discuss more about writing horror for various audiences: Young Adult vs Mature Readers (Summer's Dark Waters vs Aona).  Did you feel constrained with Dark Water's?

SW: I certainly didn't feel constrained with Summer's Dark Waters, I find it's perfectly possible to make something "scary" and exciting without resorting to overly graphic descriptions. It was a challenge initially to make my style a little less complex but I soon got into the swing of it, and as with my other others the characters ended up helping to carry the story. One of my new projects is actually a book for even younger readers which is actually a greater challenge still- we'll see if that works out.

I don't really feel that there needs to be much difference in style and content between Young Adult and Adult if the reading age of the reader is high enough. I'm not a big believer in censorship- there are far worse things in the news every day than in the books of 99.99% of authors!

SEL #6) Are any of your characters artists? Can you talk about their motivations?

SW: Alexia, member of a ruling family that met a very unpleasant end, is more a polymath but would include art amongst her skills. Nia is an assassin but would consider herself an artist (in the first few books anyway) based on the kind of work she does and her attention to detail, not to mention the sometimes unusual methods (see Oblivion's Forge for an example). Her motivation? Perhaps the intensity of her work helps her bury the past. Nia is one of the more complex characters in the series and I think her motivation in all things changes many times through the saga.

SEL #7) What are your muses? Are you trying to capture/contain/control particular horrors or fears?

SW: On the contrary, I'm tapping into the deepest recesses of my imagination in order to find things I perhaps didn't even know existed, and then let them go. In my experience, fear can't be contained forever; sooner or later it needs to fly free.

 

SEL #8) The runic covers have always caught my eye.  Are they Scandinavian/Futhark? Something else?  Please discuss the choice of coverart for the Aona series.

SW: I came up with the symbols and their meanings, and intend to explain them in detail in my Aona "guide" which I'm slowly compiling. They've proved popular and have certainly drawn people to my work. I consciously chose to avoid the usual fantasy tropes and cliches when I first thought about the covers, and decided a sparse, enigmatic motif would be ideal for the books. The Aona series bridges genres other than fantasy as well, so coming up with a common visual "standard" for the books might have been difficult with anything more involved. The books are fairly complex and so I also wanted to use something clean and stripped-down as a counterpoint.

SEL #9) Please share your own thoughts about the creative process. Anything peculiar about your methods? Suggestions for others?

SW: To be honest, I have no particular method. I write, I write some more, I keep writing, some of it's good and I keep it, some of it's bad and I scrap it, some of it's ok and I edit it. Sometimes it's a struggle to wade through the "creative mire" as I call it, and at other times I just sit down and it kind if happens without my really knowing about it. I like to have a title before I even start, and quite often I'll know how it all ends a long while before the middle bit and the bulk of the plot is in place. Basically it all starts with a vision, and I know that if I stick to that vision and the skeleton of the plot, in time everything will come together. That's the way it's always been.

That messy, chaotic way of working won't work for everyone, so I can't necessarily recommend it. It works for me though. 



Seek out more about Simon Williams and his dark fantasy:

Author Website Link /  Twitter: @SWilliamsAuthor / Amazon Author Page 

Summer’s Dark Waters: Amazon UK link     Amazon US: 
Oblivion’s Forge (Aona Book I): Amazon UK  Amazon US 


Sunday, April 17, 2016

Serpent Goddess Katrina Sisowath - Interview by S.E.


The series of "Art & Beauty in Weird/Fantasy Fiction" interviews engage contemporary authors & artists to reveal their muses; this one features Katrina Sisowath, contributing author at Ancient-Origins.net. The Doom of Undal is a beautiful blend historical fiction and alchemical fantasy (Doom-S.E. review and Fall of Undal -S.E. review). The Dragon Court series continues with the recently released Fall of Undal. Let's learn about the author’s muses. Thanks to Katrina Sisowath for sharing her weird attraction to serpents, mythology, and sacred pregnancies!


About Katrina Sisowath

Katrina Sisowath, (1979--) British-American, born in Frankfurt, Germany. Grew up in South-east Asia and Europe, now lives in England. Mother of 2.5 children (dog thinks he's human), experienced in making brownies.

On a personal level, Katrina is an avid book reader and loves mythology, history, ancient civilizations and anything to do with occult ideologies and practices. Mages, Serpent Priestesses and the 'real' Gods, aka the ANNUNAKI (the prototypes for those we know today in the form of Greek, Roman, Indian and even the Biblical characters) are all addressed on her website, with descriptions of Dragons, consciousness altering drinks and powders and what the scarlet clad priestesses really got up to in their sacred chamber. She also is a guest writer on Ancient Origins, writing about the Serpent Cult, Mystery Schools and their politico-military branches. 'Serpent Priestess of the Annunaki' (Dragon Court Series #1), published by 5 Prince Publishing was released June 19, 2014, quickly rising up the Mythology charts, becoming a best-seller. This was followed by Doom of Undal (#2, 2015), and now Fall of Undal (#3, 2016).

1) SE: The Dragon Court series seems to be both alternate history and mythology. The Annunaki deities in your books appeared based on a variety of ancient cultures (Greek, Roman, Indian and even Biblical characters). Can you reveal inspirations, both real and fantastical? Likewise, are there some design aspects, such as associating certain fictional-characters with particular real-cultures?

KS: The Dragon Court is based on the ancient Serpent Cult, which seems to have originated in Sumer and spread to Cambodia, China, India, Egypt and eventually Europe. I’ve studied the works of authors such as Arthur Waite, Dr Waddell, Laurence Gardner, Gerald Gardner, Philip Gardiner and Gary Osborn, who have researched various aspects and written very interesting books. My inspiration comes from their research as well as mythology, the occult and even the Bible (which has a lot to say about Serpents).

I’ve found that there are a lot of correlating accounts between the various mythologies, so that the same stories are told in many countries, with the gods and goddesses given different names. The fact that many of them are tied in some way with the dragon or serpent mythology led me to create a world in which figures like Innana were real and the Serpent Cult was a powerful entity of kingdoms devoted to the religion. It may have been the first advanced civilization which kept its power through sending emissaries to newly developing kingdoms, offering wealth and knowledge in return for fealty, with a marriage cementing the deal. This may be why most of the Royal Families of today claim descent from a Serpent Prince or Princess who had come from over the seas. What’s interesting is that it’s through that marriage the Royal Family was able to claim divinity.

It is this idea that the Serpent Cult existed and was focused on protecting its bloodline that sparked the story in my head. In some accounts they were wise and noble, in others they were a danger to humanity. I hope to be able to balance both accounts in the Dragon Court series, showing those involved to be fallible and thus capable of being good or evil.
 

2) Are you afraid of snakes in real life (or serpents in your dreams)? If so, is it therapeutic to create art (i.e.,write) about your fears? Did you ever have a nightmare about giving birth to a serpent?

KS: I'm not actually scared of snakes, I once thought a wire in our garden in Indonesia was a snake and my mom caught me pulling it out of the ground (luckily in time). I'm more likely to scream when I see a mouse than a snake.Inline image 1I do find these images disturbing, though, and I wonder if they spark the same response in others. So if there is therapy in my writing, it's trying to come to terms with the emotions I feel when I see these images and balance the stories about them with the writings of David Icke and Graham Hancock. I still don't know what to make of them.
 I think I find the legacy of family, beliefs and expectations to be quite terrifying and restrictive (descendant of Jewish Huguenots, have traced our ancestry back far enough to learn the names of those sent to the stake) in terms of how others view you and how you view yourself and your family tree.

 I've never dreamt of giving birth to a serpent, but I have worried about passing on my fears, faults, and foibles to my children.


3) "The Doom of Undal" had an interesting blend of young female protagonists involved with some fairly dark rituals, especially with pregnancy. What is your take on balancing the "beauty" many associate with woman & birth against "darkness"? 

KS: I know that in many stories, particularly romance tales, the idea that a man and woman fall in love and pregnancy is the result is treated as the most wondrous moment of their lives. And it can be, but there is also the issue of arranged marriages, difficult pregnancies and traumatic childbirths, and I think in the ancient world the news that you were about to be married would have been terrifying for a lot of girls.

(Ecce Ancilla Domini (1850),
Tate Britain, London, D. G Rossetti)
I think the expression on Mary’s face in this painting sums it all up (see inset).

With Serpent Priestess of the Annunaki, I focussed on the beginning of a bloodline and the rituals, beliefs and procedures fomented to protect it. With The Doom of Undal, a lot of time has passed and the children born into the Dragon Court have their paths set out for them almost from birth. Yet the question is what happens when they choose their own path? What are the consequences?

For women, in particular, when the emphasis is on maintaining a bloodline, there is perhaps no greater act of rebellion than in choosing to have a child ‘without permission’. The Undal books look at the weakening of the bloodline through inbreeding, the old guard still maintaining strict control on each generation and follow three sisters from childhood into adulthood.  The eldest does as is expected, while the two younger deviate from the norm. But only one causes a great schism and worldwide war.

Although the Dragon Court series is fantasy, I still try to maintain a sense of realism in the storyline and the characters themselves.

4) What are your artistic muses?

KS: I seem to be drawn to the Pre-Raphaelite artists and so William Holman Hunt, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, John William Waterhouse and the other members of the Brotherhood have created my favourite paintings.

5) Besides writing, do you practice other art? If so, please share which media.

KS: I wish. My mother is a fantastic artist, as are my grandfather, my cousins and my eldest daughter. It seems to have by-passed me entirely. My grandmother and uncle were incredible musicians, but I do not possess a musical bone in my body. My father’s side is fonder of putting words to paper, so I seem to have inherited that trait. I do appreciate music and art, though.

6) Any inspirational fine art to share? 

K.S. Happily. These are some of my favourites and there is a lot of symbolism contained in these images, while telling stories that are familiar to us.

 

The Fall of Undal is out now via Amazon website globally (US centric link provided).

The lines are drawn between the Royal House of Undal and the Dragon Court, led by the Royal House of Magan. Cronous and Rhea have gathered to their side ten nations, forming their own empire, one great enough to confront their former friends and allies. Yet victory is not assured. The Annunaki have their own plans on how to deal with the upstart King and Queen and they keep their own counsel, leaving those that serve them uncertain of what is to come.  
With both sides forced to seek out new allies, to make and carry out plans never before conceived in order to win the war, who will go too far? At what point will one side tip the balance in war and unleash devastation upon the entire planet?  


Drawing upon accounts of devastation and global war from ancient texts (including the Bible) and exploring the concept of ‘passing through fire’ and the Baal rites, The Fall of Undal is the thrilling conclusion to The Doom of Undal. 

Thursday, January 7, 2016

Stephen Leigh - Immortal Interview

2021 Update: This interview was refreshed for a Black Gate posting with a annotated/deleted chapter!

The series of "Art & Beauty in Weird/Fantasy Fiction" interviews engage contemporary authors & artists to reveal their muses; this one features Stephen Leigh, author of many books including Immortal Muse (S.E. Review link), which is a beautiful blend of historical fiction and alchemical fantasy. Let's learn about his muses.

Bio:  Stephen Leigh (SL) hails from Cincinnati and has professionally published over 26 novels and ~50 short stories (including those in George RR Martin's WILD CARDS).  Steve has several identities, having also written under the pseudonyms “S. L. Farrell” and “Matt Farrell” in both the Sci-Fi and Fantasy genres.  He is a musician and vocalist too, active in several local bands. Stephen teaches creative writing at Northern Kentucky University and has mentored many via his teaching and his online essays.

SE: Pseudonyms & Genre Muses:  You've written dozens of novels in various genres. Do you have different muses per genre?

SL: No, I just have wide tastes in what I like to read, which means I have similarly wide tastes in what I like to write.  To my mind, there’s only one Muse, no matter what creative endeavor I’m engaged in or what genre I’m writing.

SE: Cross-over Muses: Is there any muse that inspired you to express something in multiple forms?  If so, please identify the books/music that are connected.  If not, have you considered linking the content of your music and writing?

SL: In CROW OF CONNEMARA, my latest book (like IMMORTAL MUSE, a stand-alone novel... sorta), one of the main protagonists is a musician. As a result, there’s a lot of Celtic music referenced and quoted in the novel, and at one point, he sings one of his ‘original’ songs… but of course that’s one of mine, actually.  Unfortunately, though I’ve played the song out several times on gigs, I don’t have a recording of it to share…

Similarly, in the WILD CARDS shared world series (edited by George RR Martin), with which I’ve been involved since the beginnings way back in the mid-80s, one of my characters is “Drummer Boy”, who’s in a band called “Joker Plague.”  The Joker Plague lyrics I’ve quoted in a few books in that series are all mine, some from songs I’ve written, other just made up for the situation.

SE: Fine Arts: You play in bands and write, but your bachelor's degree is in Fine Arts. Any chance your foundations will emerge publicly? Is there a sketch, photograph, or painting we can share? 

SL: Here are a few…  Below is a sketch I did a few years back -- of nothing in particular, just a landscape in my head...
S.Leigh Sketch 
Here are a couple others, another pencil sketch and a watercolor, again imaginary landscapes.
  
S. Leigh Watercolor and Sketch

A Miccail, by S. Leigh
And just for a change of pace, I drawing I did of a Miccail for DARK WATER’S EMBRACE, which never went into the original publication, but was added when I got the rights back to the book and re-published the novel through Arc Manor/Phoenix Press -- that version’s still available on Amazon.

On my website, in what I call “The Attic,” there are some old illustrations that I put together to help me visualize the setting of a novel, but were never used by the publishers.  The Attic’s at http://www.farrellworlds.com/oldpages/Attic.html if anyone wants to check them out.

Oh… and for epic fantasy books set in alternate worlds, I generally create a map to help me ‘see’ the landscape of the world.  You’ll find such in the Cloudmages series (by S.L. Farrell:  HOLDER OF LIGHTNING, MAGE OF CLOUDS, and HEIR OF STONE) and in the Nessantico Cycle (also by S.L. Farrell: A MAGIC OF TWILIGHT, A MAGIC OF NIGHTFALL, and A MAGIC OF DAWN) -- for all of those, I created the maps that are in the books.

SE: Pubs and Beer: Is there a bar/pub within greater Cincinnati/Newport that inspired Immortal Muses' "Bent Calliope"? Is there a coven of artisans who meet there?

SL: I like the idea of a ‘coven’ of creative types, but I’m afraid not; the Bent Calliope was wish fulfillment on my part. I’ve played music in (and had a drink or two in) lots of bars and taverns over the decades. I wish here was a local bar like that -- a kind of creative “Cheers” where everybody knows your name (and what you wrote/composed/drew/painted/sculpted/published), and where a real Muse occasionally dropped in to enhance what you were doing -- wouldn’t that be nice!

But if one exists, I’ve yet to find it.  Alas.

SE: Art & Alchemy? Prior 1600, scientists and artists had overlapping interests/skills; scientists had to draw their own data in sketchbooks; conversely, artists had to craft/prepare their own pigments and materials (via chemistry). Artists and alchemists frequented the same apothecaries. The art & science of transmuting materials was a shared goal. What inspired you to fictionalize alchemical history and begin Immortal Muse?

Modigliani's Jeanne Hébuterne
SL: Honestly, the alchemy came in late in the process -- for me, inspiration for novels generally springs from more than one source.  Here’s how it happened with IMMORTAL MUSE… (It’s a longish tale, so settle in…I’ll try to be concise. Honest.)  In January of 2010, I’d finished A MAGIC OF DAWN, the last of the ‘Nessantico Cycle’ books (written as “S.L. Farrell”) and I’d begun thinking about what I wanted to write next.  In the mornings, I generally go through a short list of websites as part of my routine; one site was the BBC’s “Pictures of the Day” (alas, they no longer do this…) where they collected striking photographs from around the world.  That day, one of the pics showed a woman reflected in (I believe) a hubcap, which stretched and elongated her figure.  Huh, I thought, that reminds me of the Modigliani paintings from my Art History classes… which sent me off googling Modigliani.

In doing that, I noticed that many of Modigliani’s portraits were of the same woman, Jeanne Hébuterne.  Here’s one. So I also googled Jeanne Hébuterne, and came across a photograph of her.
Jeanne Hébuterne
I was immediately struck by her, especially those wonderful, dark, soul-searching eyes.  I looked up the incredibly tragic story of the love affair between Jeanne and Amedeo (I’ll leave it to the reader to find that for themselves). I also wrote a blog post about that bit of serendipitous research, the last line of which was: “If a (much younger and unattached) me were sent back to 1916 or so, I might go looking for Jeanne. Maybe I'll just put her in a story instead...”  Mind you, I had no thoughts of actually doing that at that moment.  But the thought was now in my subconscious.

So, moving on…  I habitually read a lot of non-fiction (I think of it as “mining for ideas”) and one such was a book by Francine Prose called THE LIVES OF THE MUSES, about several well-known women who had been the muses of and influenced the artistic creations of the artists whom they loved.  It was a decent book that I enjoyed reading (though someone needs write a book which includes male muses…).  And I started wondering: What if…  What if there was a genuine Muse, a person who literally did enhance the creativity of an artist?  Maybe that could be my next book: an urban fantasy around that concept.  Hmm…  But I couldn’t quite find the ‘hook’ I wanted in that idea.  (And so that thought went into the subconscious hopper, too).

While I was flailing around, I read through some old novel proposals I’d started and abandoned.  One was about two immortal people chasing each other through time.  The proposal really sucked (which is why I never sent it out), but I found that I still had some fascination with the core idea there.  (Into the hopper…)

Thinking about immortality took me into doing some research on alchemy, which quickly led me to Nicolas and Perenelle Flamel, and the story that after Nicolas died (as a fairly rich man), grave robbers broke into his tomb because they thought there might be valuables buried with him… and found that the tomb was empty.  And there were rumors that people had glimpsed Nicolas and Perenelle long after their supposed deaths.  Hmm…  Into the hopper.

I was also at the time reading another non-fiction book (translated from French) called PARIS IN THE MIDDLE AGES, by Simone Roux.  It looks at the same timeframe as the Flamels (though it doesn’t particularly mention them) but there were lovely atmospheric details in the book that drew me into wanting to set a story in Paris in that time.  Yes, into the hopper…

And (finally, at last!), at a dinner with some friends, we started talking about vampires and why every other book in the bookstores at that time seemed to be another vampire story.  (No, IMMORTAL MUSE has no vampires!)  I posited during that conversation that one reason vampires had such popularity is that can potentially live forever, and that hey, I might be willing to trade having to suck blood from the living for that chance.  (Into the hopper…)

It all came together in the shower, a morning or two after that conversation. (I know, try to get that image out of your mind…)  What if -- again, that lovely seminal phrase for so much science fiction and fantasy -- Perenelle Flamel had been Nicolas’ muse, and he hers in return?  What if she, not he, created the immortality potion that was half of the Philosopher’s Stone?  What if that accomplishment really ticked off Nicolas?  What if -- as a result of taking the elixir -- she was ‘cursed’ (somewhat vampirically, if I can coin a word) by being required to ‘feed’ on creative energy: she must be a Muse for the entirety of her immortal life?  What if Nicolas has also taken her potion and has been similarly cursed (though he ‘feeds’ on physical pain -- in the book, Nicolas is not a good person). He is chasing Perenelle through time, eternally angry with her? What if some of these famous artistic muses of history were actually Perenelle?

Aha… The structure of the book began to fall together for me:  a ‘present-day’ thread that would go through the entire novel, with historical tales layered in-between.  Why, Modigliani and Jeanne could be one of those… I wrote up the proposal in a creative heat in March of 2010 and sent it to Sheila Gilbert at DAW, who’s my editor; she loved it.  I started researching artists and muses, and putting together the book…

Mind you, the book would undergo several significant and major changes during the writing and revisions.  For instance, I wrote up a long (15,000 words or so) historical segment with Modigliani and Jeanne that I really liked, then realized that for a few good reasons it didn’t work with the overall arc of the book, and ended up reluctantly cutting it.  A similarly long and completed Nathaniel Hawthorne sequence was likewise abandoned, as were unfinished segments with Sonya Noskowiak (a photographer) and Artemisia Gentileschi (one of my favorite Baroque painters).  The Gustav Klimt, Charlotte Salomon, and Antoine-Laurent de Lavoisier segments emerged late in the revisions, partially as ‘replacements’ for the cut sections.

Sometimes, no matter how fond you are of what you’ve written, no matter how much effort and labor you’ve put into the creation of a segment, you have to kill it to make the book a better book.

     SE:  Is there a specific Klimt or Salomon work that you worked from?

SL: I’ve always been fascinated by Klimt’s paintings and drawing, and his distinctive style.  From a research standpoint, I read GUSTAV KLIMT: Painter of Women by Susanna Partsch, as well as VIENNA MODERNISM 1890 – 1910 by Isabella Ackert, along with some online, spur-of-the moment research at need.  Again, I borrowed real historical characters from his life and times, but the ‘Perenelle’ in this timeframe, unlike most of the others, is entirely fictional.

Salomon's "Life? Or Theater?"
Klimt's Lady With Fan (Emilio Floge)

Charlotte Salomon I hadn’t been familiar with, but in researching artists of the WWII era (because I felt I needed someone from that timeframe), I came across her and was fascinated by her story.  Like Anne Frank, her life was tragically cut short, and who knows what she might have done had she lived.  Still, her evocative autobiographical paintings are a great legacy.  For research there, I read TO PAINT HER LIFE: Charlotte Salomon in the Nazi Era by Mary Lowenthal Felstiner, as well as doing a fair amount of research into the political environment in France at the time.

For those interested in what was true and where I took fictional liberties in the various historical eras, I detail that in the Afterword of IMMORTAL MUSE.

Waiting for a Muse: In your essay "TenThings I've Learned (As A Writer)" you address how mature professionals have to move past waiting for their muses. Can you comment on your current relationship with your muse? Is she understanding that you can't always work on her timing?

"4: Make writing a dirty habit
In my early career, I waited for the muse to appear before I wrote. I thought stories were supposed to flow in sparkling fire from my pen to the page, fully formed and perfect. I’d always been told (by people who weren’t writers themselves but who taught literature) that this was how Capital-A Art worked. 
That’s complete and utter bullshit. 
... What I slowly realized was that if I hoped to forge a career as a writer, I couldn’t wait for the fickle muse to appear. I had to write without her… because once you start writing, the muse can’t stand to be left out and eventually shows up at your side. The very act of writing attracts the muse to you." - S.L. Farrell
I think it’s more a matter of me realizing that my job is to write, whether or not the Muse sits down with me or not. If what spews out onto the page is crap, well, that’s why we revise (and revise, and revise again).  Unlike the math tests I remember in school, writers don’t have to ‘show their work.’  No one except the writer is required to read the ugly, deformed drafts or view all the changes that get made, scenes we’ve cut,  rearrangements we’ve made, mistakes we’ve made and corrected, essential foreshadowing we added at the last minute, and so on.

If you persist, eventually the Muse does show up. Eventually. At some point, things start to gel and come together.  All we give our readers is the final, polished version. My task as a writer is to make sure that what I send out to Sheila and other editors is the best I’m capable of writing at the time. If I don’t like what I’ve written, then it doesn’t go out. If I can honestly say that I couldn’t write the story any better than I’ve written it at this point in time and with the skill that I currently have, then I’ve done my job (and so has my Muse).

If the editor to whom I send the piece passes on it, that’s their decision -- it happens. If a reader, once the piece is published, doesn’t care for it, well, that happens too; I’ve no control over that. Writers write. Once the writing is done and the work has found a home somewhere, our job’s done.

Thanks to Stephen for taking the time for revealing all these details. Readers can learn more about him via his blog and reading his work!

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