Mindy Klasky

[hildy89]

CVS had a great turnout for the Mindy Klasky’s appearance last night. She is a local fantasy author who ironically works as a law librarian. She started out as a copyright/trademark attorney, so she understandably had mixed emotions over the fanfiction issue. Flattering as an author to have your work used, but nervous because you never know what use that will be! She gave a lot of detail on the publishing process through all the myriad of edits. How do you balance the 11 page edit letter and the “Oh, by the way, your next book is still due soon”. I could see why authors say they’re sick of their books by the time it gets published. She talked about world building some. She takes more of a spot research approach, rather than immersing herself in a subject. As a librarian, Mindy pointed out she was used to someone asking for a specific question, finding it and moving on. So while she needed the names of the tools and color mixtures information for her Glasswrights series, she didn’t as she used the example, go off to Seattle to study with Dale Chihuly on the specific temperatures of blowing this sort of glassware. She also talked about writing fantasy without magic. She didn’t want her characters to have magic as an immediate crutch. Interestingly she used Jacqueline Carey’s Kushiel’s Dart as a similar example. I’m reading the first of her Glasswrights series now and I’m enjoying it. The Thousand gods are an interesting twist. Even with a database, I’m not sure I could keep track of them all as a writer. But it is fascinating what such an integral part they are to the story and the characters.