Rueben's Ramblings

On the last day of Comic-Con 2013, some of the top sci-fi authors gathered for a panel entitled “Witches and Fey, Monsters and Mortals” about all those things that go bump in the night for which they have created for their books.

The panelists included the following:

• Rachel Caine, the author of The Weather Warden series, The Red Letter Days series, The Morganville Vampires series (which is actually being made into an online series), The Athena Force series, The Outcast Season series and The Revivalist series;

• Brom (aka Gerald Brom), the author of Metamorphosis, Offerings, Brom’s Little Black Book, Darwerks: The Art of Brom, The Plucker, The Devil’s Rose, The Child Thief and Krampus the Yule Lord;

• Leigh Bardugo, the author of The Witch of Duva and the books of the Grisha trilogy, including Shadow and Bone and Siege and Storm.

• Seanan McGuire, the author of the InCryptid series and the October Daye series;

• Amber Benson, the author of the Calliope Reaper-Jones series and the Ghosts of Albion series (TV viewers will also recognize Amber for her recurring role on Buffy, the Vampire Slayer);

• C. Robert Cargill, the author of Queen of the Dark Things and Dreams and Shadows;

• Morgan Rhodes, the author of the Falling Kingdoms series; and,

• S.M. (Shannon) Wheeler, the author of Sea Change.

Some of the authors first talked about their backgrounds and how that differs greatly from what they are doing now; such as Rachel who shared that she studied accounting and music in college and Robert stated that he is a “history buff”, but that actually helped in his writing because what we know as fantasy “was someone else’s religion” at one point in time. And, Leigh shared that she was an English major (which obviously helped in her career path) and that she wanted to make the creatures from the dark ages into literal beings that would “scare the crap” out of her readers.

And some of the authors then talked about what drew them to their particular creations with Brom sharing that “monsters don’t know they are monsters” and “one person’s God is another person’s demon” so it was interesting for him to develop the creatures in his stories and in his artwork.

When the subject of whether they designed their own creatures or created them from research, Robert shared that he “did create a fairy based on mythology” while Seanan stated that she “does both”. Then Brom shared that “he feels like he is role-playing with his monsters”, making it easier to design them.

Of course the subject of what character in pop culture scares each of the authors most brought out quite different answers:

• Morgan – Pinhead from Hellraiser and the girl from The Ring
• Robert – Freddie Kreuger
• Rachel – The gentlemen from Buffy, the Vampire Slayer
• Shannon – The creatures in the video game Silent Hill
• Seanan – Creep Show 2
• Brom proudly announced that “he loves monsters” and it is actually “his happy place” but he does not like parasites.

Then the discussion turned to what each of the authors are currently working on:

• Shannon – Sea Change sequel
• Morgan – Fallen Kingdom book 3
• Robert – Dreams & Shadows sequel, a possible Sinister movie sequel as well as a possible adaptation of the movie in video game format
• Amber – A new series of books with the working title “Witches of Echo Park”
• Seanan – Working on six different, ongoing projects
• Leigh – Book three of her current series
• Brom – A collection of illustrations and a fifth novel
• Rachel – The Morganville Vampires online series and for the first time in 20 years, she is taking some much deserved time off

Much too soon, the panel had to come to an end with a short Q&A from the audience; and that brought to an end my last day at Comic Con 2013 as well.

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