harles de Lint is widely credited with having pioneered the contemporary urban fantasy genre. His 40 published books to date (including novels, novellas, collections, etc.), along with countless short stories and poems, make it easy to see why he is established as one of the leading fantasy writers in North America.
He served as vice president of the Horror Writers Association from 1992 through 1994. He has won several awards, including the 1984 William L. Crawford Award for Best New Author, the 1988 Canadian SF/Fantasy Award for his Jack, The Giant Killer and the Prix Ozone 1997 for Best Foreign Fantasy Short Story for "Timeskip." His novel Trader received a 1998 YALSA Award, having been chosen for the American Library Association's "Best Books for Young Adults," while The Little Country was selected for the New York Public Library's 1992 "Best Books for the Teen Age."
His latest novel, The Onion Girl (Tor), is a dark and disturbing story full of uncomfortable topics. The book, however, delves into the dichotomy of the human spirit, exploring both the dark and light aspects of the human (and fairy) soul.
On top of all of that, he is the primary book reviewer for The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction.
Born in the Netherlands, now a citizen of Canada, he is also a musician who specializes in traditional and contemporary Celtic and roots music with his musical partner and wife, MaryAnn Harris.
The trickster plays a major part in several of your novels. Why are you drawn to this character?
de Lint: I'm drawn to outsiders, people who are out of the regular society, such as artists, people in the creative endeavors and criminals. The trickster is also fun. There is one level where he/she is very clever—they can get out of predicaments and they get into predicaments as well. They make for a fascinating character.
In your novel, Someplace To Be Flying, the Crow Girls are fascinating creatures. What was your inspiration for them?
de Lint: I have no idea. Probably just watching crows [laughs].
I just moved a year ago and my new neighbor told me: "Until you moved in that house, we didn't have crows in the neighborhood." [Laughs.] I love watching crows, they are so smart and so clever—they are goofy but they are quite serious.
Most people don't like crows. I'm quite delighted by the fact that I've been getting a fair amount of mail from people saying stuff like, "I've always hated crows, but after reading your book—I look at them [crows] in a different light and they make me smile."
Regarding your latest novel, The Onion Girl, there is a strong thread of redemption running throughout the book. How did you arrive at the concept?
de Lint: I've known for years that I'd be writing a story about Jilly, but knowing her backstory, I put it off for a long time. I like her too much to put her through what she must go through in this book. But you can't put things off indefinitely, and the basic premise behind the book has stayed strong in me over the years—how the same traumatic event could so differently affect people who have come up out of the same environment—so much so that I finally had to write about it.
The Onion Girl addresses topics that are heinous—the physical, mental and sexual abuse of children. It must have been difficult to write. How did you, as the writer, cope with the emotional feelings that writing about such topics are bound to stir up?
de Lint: It was a very tough book to write—for the reasons you mention. But another huge difficulty was writing the character of Raylene in such a way that she'd be both sympathetic and decidedly not. Mostly I just took it a day at a time.
The family that one chooses plays a pivotal role in the development of Jilly and Raylene. Please expand upon that concept.
de Lint: I'm not sure how to. We all need a family, some form of close community. Unfortunately, some people don't get born into it, so they have to go out and find it. In the case of this book, happenstance played a large part for both characters. They both fell into their new families. Unfortunately, for Raylene, hers was a bad crowd. But it's important to note that no matter what else she and Pinky did, they did remain loyal to one another.
Consensual reality, or the World As It Is, is a fascinating concept in The Onion Girl. Please explain it, and how it relates to the dreamlands.
de Lint: It's pretty basic, and certainly not a concept I came up with, though I can't remember where I first ran across it. I could be way off base here, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was in
the writings of Colin Wilson. What it means is that the world is the way it is because we all agree that's the way it is. It could, in fact, be radically different, and in my books it often is.
The theme of redemption is woven throughout The Onion Girl. Jilly, Raylene and Toby find redemption. Is there redemption in the mix for the Tattersnake as well?
de Lint: I don't know if it's exactly redemption they find. I think it's more a kind of strength—the strength to be true to oneself, but also the strength to accept help from, and offer help to, others. I have no idea if the Tattersnake ever will.
Jilly sees the world of faerie in the most unusual places; junkyards, dancing around the head of a wino, a flea market. Additionally, some inhabitants of the dreamlands are dangerous and vile. Why have you chosen to show the reader this version of the faerie?
de Lint: Firstly, because it makes such a fascinating juxtaposition. But it's also a metaphor for how worth can be found in the apparently worthless.
You have written novels set in both the typical fantasy-type world and in a modern, urban setting. Which setting do you prefer and why?
de Lint: When I first took up writing, I knew I wanted to write fantasy because I'd like things with something different—like the magic element. When I first started writing back in the '70s, I found that if you were going to do that you had to write high fantasy or secondary world fantasy.
My first excursions were that sort of thing. I wasn't totally enamored with it, with what I was doing. I wanted to do something different, something of my own. My wife suggested setting fantasy in a mainstream setting: "You read fantasy, you read mainstream books—why don't you combine the two?" I wrote one that didn't work. I wrote a second time and it worked better for me and that was Moonheart (the first one is not published). I really got taken by this and started to explore it.
Nowadays, what I'm writing—I'd like to think of it as mystic fiction. This is a term my editor, Terri Windling, and I have come up with. If they are going to put us up in a genre—might as well make up your own genre [laughs].
It's a book set in a contemporary society, it doesn't have to be urban, it can be rural, utilizing mystic elements as a strong part of the story. I just love it, that is why. I'm doing that more than anything else. I wanted to do something only I can write.
You've been working with Terri Windling for a number of years now. What is Terri like?
de Lint: That would require a book-length response, to do Terri justice. Let me say that she's smart, talented, generous and just an all-round sweetheart. I love reading her prose, many of the walls of my house have her art on them, and through her editing on my books—especially in the early years when we were both at Ace—she's taught me an incredible amount about the craft of writing, showing me how to express myself better. She has this real gift for knowing what a writer wants to say, then showing them how to do so if they haven't managed to figure it out on their own.
Music is an important element in your writing, used as a tool by your characters and also as the characters' means of making a living. You also are an accomplished musician. Does the music drive the writing, or does the writing drive the music?
de Lint: It's hard to say. They're both creative impulses. I've never wanted to be a writer, I wanted to be a musician when I first started out. The problem is, it was the wrong kind of music to play. This is going back to the early '70s, and I would play Celtic music. There was no world beat, no Pogues—none of that stuff was around. I just played in bars, I did that for a long time. I was writing then, but I never submitted [stories] for publication, it never occurred to me. I ran into a fellow who suggested where I could send some of my stories to and I did—some small fanzine in the [United] States. The editor bought three stories for 10 dollars each. A little light went off in my head. I realized I could make a living off of being a writer [laughs]. It is something I do love as well—it has a lot more potential than playing in bars or working in a record shop, where I was working at the time.
I started writing seriously for publications instead of just doing it for fun. I've always kept the music up, it goes back and forth. I think it is even in the way the words fall on the page—it's like a symphony. You write certain passages certain ways because you want a certain feeling—just like music. The music comes out in my pacing.
Your novels have been published in the U.S., Canada, England and Germany. To what do you attribute international success of your books?
de Lint: I had a reviewer once say that I "write fantasy for people who normally don't read fantasy." I like that phrase. I don't want to ignore the fantasy audience—they have been very supportive of me—and I'm one of them. I still like a good fantasy book myself.
But, on the other hand, there are a lot of people who would not read it, or think they would read it—but those people get clued that it is something they can enjoy because it is set in a contemporary setting, it is something that touches and relates to part of their modern lives—it has the added little zing of the fantasy element in it.
Hollywood has been doing this for years, they just don't market it as a fantasy. Movies like City of Angels, John Travolta's Phenomenon, Pleasantville or Splash. A lot of films that are contemporary stories that people can relate to, but they have that extra little thing.
Svaha is a science fiction book. Do you see more science fiction in your future?
de Lint: No. But that's an older novel, that was written in the '70s. I think of it as a science fantasy. But I did work very hard at getting the extrapolation of future elements in it. It takes place 100 years in the future. I don't think I'm really cut out for that kind of writing. That book took a long time to write. I researched that book for seven years before I sat down and wrote it.
I had to study the Native American stuff, read about the Chinese, the Japanese and all the future
extrapolations and things like that. It was a lot of work into it. I don't foresee writing much more in that style, but you never know.
You have written books for young adults and adult readers. Do you have to write in a different mindset for the two different audiences?
de Lint: I don't really write them differently. The only thing I do differently is make sure there is no swearing in them and try to tone down any violent or sexual content.
On the other hand, I'm getting readers who are 11 or 12 who liked The Little Country [laughs]. Those same kids are reading Stephen King. Younger readers who are reading above themselves, of what we consider they should be reading—they have been doing that for years. I don't think it is right to write down to anybody.
There have been a lot of good speculative writers coming out of Canada right now, such as William Gibson, Spider Robinson, Robert Charles Wilson, Edo Van Belkom and of course, yourself. How would you describe the Canadian science fiction and fantasy writing scene?
de Lint: It seems to be very vibrant right now. I'm not as up on it as much as I should be, because my markets are not Canada per se. Whether it is selling books or selling stories, all my editors that I work with are in the [United] States or in the U.K. I'm not involved in how the Canadian scene is going.
I do see a lot of Canadian writers who are making their mark in North America and beyond. In Toronto there is a pretty good scene. And there is the Canadian magazine On Spec.
You've written vampire stories for a number of anthologies, including Under the Fang, The Ultimate Dracula, Love in Vein and your own short collection Moonlight and Vines. What is it about vampires that you like writing about?
de Lint: I don't have a specific interest in vampires. Here's how most of my short stories get written: an editor asks me to do one and, if I have time in my schedule, I agree and then try to find something to entertain myself within the confines of the anthology's theme, often trying to stretch the theme as far as possible. So in the cases you mention, the theme was vampires.
What can we expect from Charles de Lint in 2002 and 2003?
de Lint: I have a number of books coming out this year: Seven Wild Sisters, a short novel illustrated by Charles Vess [Subterranean Press], Waifs & Strays, a short story collection featuring teenage protagonists [Viking], Wolf Moon, a reprint of this early secondary world novel [hardcover from Subterranean Press; paperback from Firebird], Tapping the Dream Tree, a fourth Newford story collection [Tor], and perhaps A Handful of Coppers, the first of a projected three collections of early stories [Subterranean Press].
There will also be a number of other reprints from Tor's Orb line and the new Firebird line edited by Sharyn November. That looks like a lot, and it is; however, except for Seven Wild Sisters, most of it's reprint material. Though each of the collections will have previously unpublished and rare material in them.
Last question. Given the chance, would you stir the Raven's Pot?
de Lint: Probably [laughs]. I know I shouldn't do it; I probably would.
Also in this issue: The cast and crew of Clockstoppers
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