Laura Anne Gilman, aka suricattus, and I have known each other for ages.  We've run Disclave bars out of booze (okay, not all on our own) two nights running.  So it's wonderful to see her "Retriever" series with LUNA take off!  Spring 2010 will even see the publication of the first spin-off from the series, HARD MAGIC.</lj>

In Laura Anne Gilman's "Retrievers" series (most recently: FREE FALL, which we'll be giving away to a random person who comments here), magic is alive and well in the Modern World -- generated by our constant use of electricity. So her magic-users live not in small towns or secluded retreats, but in the heart of big cities, where you never know if the person on the subway next to you is a Null, a Talent -- or something not human at all.

Here, she talks about the problems faced by a writer who wants to infuse the fantastic into the well-known....

Laura Anne Gilman:

My New York City is not like your New York City.

There, I've said it.  I admit it. And you know what?  I did it deliberately. 

Worldbuilding is an essential part of creating believable fantasy – and by 'believable' I mean that you are able to enter the world without hesitation, that the foundation of the society makes intuitive sense to the reader, even when the details are different from the 'real.'  The writer has to do his/her homework, and sweat the details.

I worked in Manhattan for fifteen years.  I know it pretty well – and I love it.  Choosing to set the Retrievers series there was a no-brainer.  Little did I know….

When the writer creates an entirely new world, the reader goes in knowing this is Not Real.  Everyone catches a break.  Writing a contemporary fantasy?  Set in a major city where many people live and work and play, and even more see it all the time on tv?  The reader comes in with expectations of How it All Looks (and sounds, and smells, etc).  Writing a series of books set in New York City?  That's just asking for alert, nit-picky readers to tell you that you did it wrong.

That's me, masochist.  The moment I set Wren's apartment in the middle of the WestVillage, I knew that people would send me letters saying "but there's no building like that there!" or "It would take her less time than that to reach the 1 train!"

Yes, I know.  There is no apartment building there, and the nearest subway entrance is a block closer.   But there is a location exactly as I describe it, and if Wren were real, her apartment would be there.  At the same time, I used the actual name and location of one of my favorite restaurants in Manhattan – which has, in the time since, gone out of business.  So if you're looking for it?  Don't bother.

I've read books where you could follow every move the character makes like a street map, down to the distance between street lights or convenience stores.  Rarely, however, are these the details that make a compulsively readable book.

Yes, Times Square is on 42^nd Street.  Having the right theater located on the corner of 44^th and 7^th?  Not so important.  HarvardUniversity is in Cambridge, MA.  Get that right, and you can move the admissions office to another building, or add a new biology lab as needed.  The V&AMuseum in London can suddenly have another wing, and if you added a church to a neighborhood in Rome, odds are good that nobody would squawk.

And yet, there are certain things that, in my opinion, need to be respected.  I distinctly remember getting a very unhappy reader-review, where the complaint was that Wren, my heroine, makes a reference to something being post- September 11^th.  In a romantic fantasy, this reader felt, things like 9/11 shouldn't exist; it was too jarring for her, even as a historical reference.  And yet… there is no modern city today without an awareness of past events, no matter if they're from 1891, 1921, or 2001.

Because worldbuilding – epic fantasy or historical or contemporary – isn't about drawing a map, real or imaginary.  It's about telling a story.  Sometimes that means that you use what is real – and sometimes you change it.  A successful urban fantasy blurs the lines between what is real and factual and what is unreal and fanciful, until one is just as likely (or unreal) as the other.   

When you choose to set your story in a pre-existing location, you have to be honest with it.  Readers have to be able to recognize your setting as real, even if they can't use it as a street map.  Respect what makes a city that particular city – infuse its character into the descriptions – and you'll earn auctorial license to move particulars around a little, as needed.

Because in the end, the only thing a writer can do – the only thing a writer should do – is serve the story, and make your readers want to visit your city.

Other blogs, other giveaways:

Romance Divas is hosting a 3-day "Ask Me Anything" Q & A with Crystal Jordan from Monday-Wednesday this week. The workshop is free, but you have to be registered at the forum to participate.

Here's your chance to ask Crystal anything from paranormal erotic world-building and character development to print and e-publishing with Samhain, Ellora's Cave, Spice Briefs, and Kensington Aphrodisia. Learn about selling to New York without an agent, lucking into a dream agent, getting that second deal, time management for deadlines, and basically that first year after you sell!

Here's a direct link to the workshop: http://forums.romancedivas.com/index.php?showtopic=41519&hl=

Also:

The Knight Agency is hosting special blogs this week in honor of Halloween, complete with giveaways.