Interview with Elizabeth Bear - The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast Episode 44

Interview with Elizabeth Bear

The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast - Episode 44

A series of interviews with authors of historically-based fiction featuring queer women.

In this episode we talk about:

• Elizabeth’s upcoming steampunk novel Stone Mad, an independent sequel to Karen Memory. Set in an alternate late 19th century Pacific Northwest, Karen navigates her way past murderers, corrupt politicians, and arcane conspiracies the help of a steam-powered armored sewing machine, the other denizens of the disreputable Hôtel Mon Cherie, and her girlfriend Priya.
• How Karen Memory started out as a YA novel and what happened next
• The importance of voice in how the stories developed
• The roots of the world in Verne, Wells, and actual history
• Future stories involving Karen Memory
• The difference between writing grim versus hopeful worlds, even when bad things happen to your characters
• The social, historical, and political context of the Pacific Northwest that made it a perfect story setting
• Basing stories on cultural patterns as opposed to events, and why Elizabeth doesn’t write actual historical fiction
• Elizabeth’s early experiences discovering SFF with queer characters and the importance of representation in fiction
• Books mentioned
  • Karen Memory by Elizabeth Bear
  • Stone Mad by Elizabeth Bear
  • Many other books too numerous to mention

A transcript of this podcast may be available here. (Transcripts added when available.)

Links to the Lesbian Historic Motif Project Online

• Website: http://alpennia.com/lhmp
• Blog: http://alpennia.com/blog
• RSS: http://alpennia.com/blog/feed/
• Twitter: @LesbianMotif
• Discord: Contact Heather for an invitation to the Alpennia/LHMP Discord server
• The Lesbian Historic Motif Project Patreon

Links to Heather Online

• Website: http://alpennia.com
• Email: Heather Rose Jones
• Twitter: @heatherosejones
• Facebook: Heather Rose Jones (author page)

Links to Elizabeth Bear Online

• Website: Eliizabeth Bear
• Blog: Matociquala
• Twitter: @matociquala