Do you have a particular method that you use when writing a new novel, doing research or gleaning new ideas for future works?

It really has been an individualized process for each book, to a surprising degree. What’s been constant is about a year of reading and note-taking and old-fashioned brooding ... the first parts of which are usually without specific focus. Then, so far, themes and context emerge for me, and I start much more targeted research. Only after that do I find myself with characters, and a plot.

Do you have a current project you can tell us about?

The new book will be out in very early 2007, in the US, Canada, and the UK. It is called Ysabel, and information about it will be available on brightweavings.com as soon as it appears anywhere else through the publishers or publicists. (That’s part of my longstanding promise to Deborah Meghnagi who launched and maintains the site and she’d send a Soprano hitman after me if I didn’t deliver!)

The books of yours I have read in the past, all national bestsellers, have been published in Canada. As a Canadian author of some renown do you find it easy or difficult to have your books marketed or published in the US or abroad?

I’ve been very lucky, having also been published in the US and UK from the outset. In fact my first contract was with a British house, with the Canadians second, then the US. What I’ve also been able to do, and am happy about, is always separate Canada from the States as territories, so I am published here, not just distributed by a Canadian house acting for an American one. It makes a huge difference. Most Canadian houses make a portion of their revenue serving as distributors for parent houses elsewhere, or even houses with whom they set up a distributor’s relationship. But when they originate a title themselves in Canada their own energy, pride, commitment become so much greater, and the author can only reap the benefits. It isn’t necessarily easy to set this up, as the US houses tend to regard Canada as their “fiefdom” just as Paris feels the same way about Quebec.

I’ve managed to do the same thing in the French language--separating Quebec from the rest of the French-language world when I sell to France. My Quebec publishers, Alire, do a wonderful job for me, and I know with certainty that my success in that market is a function of having a publisher there, not just being distributed for a Paris house.

I also feel lucky in a wider sense that what I write seems to “work” in many languages and cultures. The various books have appeared in 21 or 22 languages now (not every book in every language) and that’s one of the things that pleases me most.

It often seems to me that Canadians wishing to publish in the sf/f genre have a hard path to follow. If an author submits to the US he is often passed over because an agent or editor is unfamiliar with his work as a Canadian. Submitting closer to home where there are few agents willing to accept genre clients and the Canadian imprints of US publishers don’t accept unsolicited manuscripts makes it no easier to get work known.

What advice can you offer to new Canadian authors wishing to break into the publishing business? Would it be a good idea to send a manuscript south to an editor or agent and take your chances, publish with a small press in Canada first and hope to get a good review, or look abroad to the UK for a market?

I am truly and passionately averse to writers holding forth with their “pearls of wisdom” for young authors. This applies to “how to write” and it also applies to “how to get published.” I think, honestly, it amounts to a scam sometimes, especially if people charge for it in workshops.

As an example, the various markets (Canada, US, UK, Germany...) change so fast and so often, with mergers, layoffs, market shifts, that offering widely-cast strategies gets silly. They could be out-of-date by the time this appears! In general, the book business is streamed towards agent-submissions, for many obvious reasons. In the absence of a personal connection to an editor in a publishing house, it makes sense to explore agency representation from credible agencies (note the modifier!) rather than self-submitting and enduring destiny in the slush pile. That much I do feel comfortable saying. As to Canada or the States, small press or big house...it turns so much on the individual work that it becomes irresponsible to offer a view in the abstract.

A somewhat related question: Do you think genre books with strong Canadian content, like an alternative history with magical elements set in Canada, would do better marketed in Canada or elsewhere in the UK rather than in the US?

Canada used to be a “bad literary address,” as a friend of mine once put it, both for a writer trying to reach the wider world and as the setting of books. It feels less so in the last decade or so. We aren’t necessarily sexy yet, but we’re graduating from home-knitted curling cardigans! It does make sense to see what kind of response one would get here in Canada with the kind of book you describe, rather than heading elsewhere. But remember it isn’t a zero-sum game...no decision in terms of submissions precludes others if it doesn’t work out. And sometimes the “others” open up if it does work out here.

Do you feel that Canadian authors and their works are getting the attention in the States and internationally that they deserve? What future do you envision for SF/F book publishing in Canada?

I partially addressed this above. I do think the world’s response to CanLit is significantly improved over the last while, much of it due to “the usual suspects” in literary circles. We also have more aggressive publishers and some powerful agents and that helps at a place like the Frankfurt Book Fair where deals are made and opinions shaped. As for SF/F here, I think Canada will (and already is) noting the sales potential of the genre (Harry Potter anyone?) and publishers are trying to find a seat at the table. The build-up is tilted towards YA fantasy right now, but I don’t think it is or will be exclusively so and Publishers’ Weekly noted in an April cover piece how “literary fantasy” is growing, too.

In reviews I’ve read of books like Lord of Emperors and Sailing To Sarantium your work has been described as history alloyed with fantasy. Could you tell me a bit about your philosophy on this matter? Why not write a historical novel; why create an imaginary world that so closely parallels our own?

I’m going to dodge slightly and refer you to an essay/speech “Home and Away” that I’ve published. It can be found on brightweavings.com (here) and addresses this question quite specifically. Indeed I wrote it because this came up so often! The answer has many facets and I wouldn’t want to short-change any of them with a sound bite here.

Thanks very much, Guy. I’m sure we will all be looking forward to the release of the new book, Ysabel, next year.

You’re welcome, Celu.