CQY: Well, it helps that he's 4,000 years old. I doubt I could
have sustained (no pun intended) the series over so long a period if I hadn't
had so much of history to play with, or that the real man the series is based on
hadn't made so many outrageous claims about his long, long life. But it also
means going back periodically to read earlier books in the series to make sure
the times I contradict myself are as few as possible.
Pasha: In his lengthy life, Count Saint-Germain has traveled and
experienced much of our world. It is well-known that you maintain a vast library
with resources on everything from historical fashions to religion and law, but
have your own travels also influenced the settings and situations Saint-Germain
has encountered in these novels?
CQY: After the fact, yes. I went to Florence more than a decade
after I started writing about the place. Luckily, I was a cartographer before I
was a professional writer, and I make it a point of consulting historical maps
when they are available. Also, as many of my readers know, I often do my own
maps which may or may not show up in my books, to keep aware of the location of
the story, which reinforces my perception of the environment around
Saint-Germain. Reading sources contemporary to the period I'm writing about is
also very helpful.
Pasha: Your works, accomplishments, and awards span across multiple genres,
from Fantasy to Horror and beyond. Do you feel there is a particular genre that
your voice fits most naturally, or does every project cross genre boundaries for
you?
CQY: To me, genre is a kind of afterthought, more the product
of the publisher than my storytelling.
I find Westerns are the most fun to write --- fun does not mean easy, but the
tropes are so familiar to most readers that I can fall into that mindset more
readily than most. When I proposed my first Western to my favorite editor, I
warned him that it probably wouldn't be typical of Westerns, and his response
was "Tell me something I don't know." By the way, I've written a sequel to the
first two Charity books, set a decade later that Oakledge Press will bring out
as an ebook and trade paperback later this year.
If I can find a home for it, I'd love to do a quartet of alternate world books
about the Roman Empire when the Romans, who had steam-driven toys, came up with
a proper steam-engine. I hope this answers the question, however obliquely.
Pasha: Though SUSTENANCE has just been released, your readers are already
eager to know what to expect next. Will we see more of Count Saint-Germain in
the near future, or are there other projects that we can anticipate?
CQY: I'm half-way through Saint-Germain #28, called Orphans
of Memory, which takes place in 814-816 AD in the Khazar Empire. They were a
Turcic people living in what is now Ukraine, but with an eastward expansion to
the northwestern shore of the Caspian Sea. Sometime between 750 and 800, much of
the population converted to their own version of Judaism. The empire was based
on trade --- really unusual for the Dark Ages --- not on territorial
acquisition. Since none of the written records have been found (although we know
they existed), I'm depending on the accounts of their neighbors to give me a
sense of what they were like. Again, atypically of the period, they were
tolerant of strangers, and had many residents who had fled their homelands for
the relative safety of their cities.
After that, it's off to something no vampire would like --- a tropical island in
the early 17th century.
I'm also working on a ghost story set in 1924 in Philadelphia.
Pasha: All of that sounds marvelous. Thank you again for joining us today
on Fresh Fiction, and we have one last question for you. As you are an avid
reader with diverse taste, we are curious to know: Are there any specific books
you are looking forward to reading in 2015?
CQY: Undoubtedly there are, but I haven't stumbled across them yet.
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