Avidbookreader Catches Up with Fantasy Writer, Patricia Briggs

My first Patri­cia Briggs novel was Moon Called (2006), the first book in her urban fan­tasy series fea­tur­ing VW mechanic and shape shifter, Mercy Thomp­son. I went on to read and enjoy her Hurog duol­ogy — Dragon Bones and Dragon Blood. What I love about Ms. Briggs’s work is that she is a solid writer who works very hard in mak­ing her world of mon­sters “feel as real as possible.”

Ms. Briggs gra­ciously took the time to answer a few ques­tions from a reader about her new Alpha and Omega series. The first book in her new fan­tasy series, Cry Wolf, is due out in book­stores July 29. Oh, there’s noth­ing spoi­ler­ish here. Enjoy.

How many books are sched­uled in the new Alpha and Omega Series?

PB: I am under con­tract for two more, and after that we’ll see. It’ll depend upon sales …and if I feel like I can still come up with inter­est­ing things for them to do.

How does Cry Wolf fit into the Mercy Thomp­son uni­verse? I real­ize that it is a spin-off of that series.

PB: Right. One of the pro­tag­o­nists of Cry Wolf, Charles is the brother of Mercy’s room­mate Samuel. He belongs to the pack that Mercy grew up in. Cry Wolf takes place between the end of Moon Called and the begin­ning of Blood Bound.

Why was it nec­es­sary to cre­ate a hero­ine with so much emo­tional bag­gage? I mean Anna has been through a lot.

PB: She was sup­posed to be a short story char­ac­ter, so I thought it would be safe [grin]. I needed a hero­ine who would make Charles show his softer side. If he’d hooked up with some like, say Mercy, she’d never have got­ten to know the real Charles because he’d never have had to make him­self that vul­ner­a­ble. I also like tough char­ac­ters … and it’s sort of like patience, you don’t develop it until you need it. Anna needed to be tough to survive.

How will this series be dif­fer­ent from the Mercy Thomp­son series?

PB: It’s in third per­son, so that allows me to show the story from both Anna and Charles (and some­times some­one else’s) view­point. Also, using a dual, male-female view­point makes it feel a lit­tle more like a romance than the Mercy books do. The A&O books have a lit­tle too much world build­ing and plots that aren’t romance-centric to qual­ify as romances, but they are a lit­tle more in the mid­dle ground between para­nor­mal romance and urban fan­tasy than the Mercy books are.

What is an Omega? What role does an Omega have in the pack and is it a trait found in females only or can males have this trait as well?

PB: An Omega is a wolf with all the pro­tec­tive instincts of a dom­i­nant wolf … with­out the need to be in charge. They also have a calm­ing effect on other wolves. Omegas can be either male or female. I imag­ine I’ll be explor­ing the abil­i­ties of an Omega wolf a lot more in future books.

Most authors like pair­ing up pop­u­lar char­ac­ters together that are from a dif­fer­ent series, so will Mercy and Anna meet up?

PB: Prob­a­bly not. I think that I already have too many major char­ac­ters and jug­gling a few more seems uncom­fort­able. Charles, Samuel and Bran will flow from one series to the other fairly eas­ily, but I don’t see Mercy and Anna in the same book any­time soon.

In your own words, what makes a good urban fantasy?

PB: First, a world that feels real. The streets, the build­ings, the peo­ple need to feel like the streets, build­ings and peo­ple out­side the read­ers door. That makes the mon­sters feel more real. The rest of it is just the same as for any good book. Good writ­ing, char­ac­ter­i­za­tion, moti­va­tion and believ­able, log­i­cal situations.

You always seem to incor­po­rate cul­tur­ally diverse char­ac­ters — how much research goes into cre­at­ing your characters?

PB: Ten years of liv­ing in the Tri Cities [grin] It’s a very diverse com­mu­nity with an econ­omy based on Agriculture/High-Tech/Nuclear energy and peo­ple come from as many places as you can think of: Russ­ian, Laot­ian, Tai, Indian, Native Amer­i­can, African Amer­i­can, Latino (not only from Mex­ico either), Chi­nese, Japan­ese … you name it, the Tri Cities has it.

Ok, off the wall ques­tion: What was the strangest thing a reader has ever said to you?

PB: There are a lot of peo­ple who take this a lot more seri­ously than maybe they ought. I’ve had peo­ple com­plain about the accu­racy of my magic ver­sus real magic. Some­one asked if were­wolves get fleas (In the Tri Cities? You bet­ter believe it.)

Last but not least, as an avid reader, who are some of your favorite urban fan­tasy or fan­tasy authors? Is there any­one that you’re really excited about reading?

PB: Oh good­ness. I read a lot — and I’m eas­ily pleased. Old favorites — Bar­bara Ham­bly, Andre Nor­ton, Anne McCaf­fery, Lois McMas­ter Bujold, Robin McKin­ley, David Weber. How about a few peo­ple with books out in the past few months: Lynn Flewelling, Sarah Mon­ette, Ilona Andrews, Jack Camp­bell. Urban Fan­tasy: Lau­rell K. Hamil­ton, Tanya Huff, Char­laine Har­ris, Kim Har­ri­son, Lynn Viehl, Jim Butcher, Rob Thur­man Para­nor­mal romance: J. R. Ward, Linda Howard (Son of the Morn­ing, Touch of Fire, Now You See Her — and a cou­ple of other books), Nora Roberts (espe­cially this new series begin­ning with The Hol­low, what fun), Christina Dodd. And of course C.L. Wil­son whose Fad­ing Lands series feel more like roman­tic fan­tasy than the para­nor­mal romance they are being sold as.

*****

Thanks Ms. Briggs for vis­it­ing with avid​bookreader​.com!