Guest Blog: Stacy Whitman
I had the good fortune to work with Stacy Whitman back when we were both at a Barnes and Noble in Boston. We discovered a mutual love of children's and young adult fantasy (she was in the process of getting a graduate degree in children's literature; I, then as now, just love reading from the kids' department). Stacy left Boston for Seattle, where she worked as an editor at Mirrorstone, the YA imprint of Wizards of the Coast, where she edited the "Hallowmere" books by Tiffany Trent (tltrent) and co-authors Amanda M. Jenkins, Paul Crilley, and Angelika Ranger (dragonegg). Now, she's started a new endeavor: Tu Publishing, a house for multicultural fantasy and science fiction for children and young adults.
I asked Stacy to pop by the blog and talk to us about Tu, asking her some questions in my initial e-mail. Happily, she responded to all three. So now, I'll turn it over to Stacy. (If you'd like to contribute to getting Tu off the ground, you can visit the kickstarter page to make a donation.)
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One of the things I love most about fantasy and science fiction is that you can imagine yourself, the reader, in the characters’ shoes in these fantastic worlds and epic stories. What I love most about reading SFF stories set in cultures I’m not a member of is that I can do not only that, but also see things through the eyes of someone very different from myself, yet still identify with that character and feel the human connection-that perhaps we’re not as different as outward appearance might imply.
This is why the small press I’m starting, Tu Publishing, will focus on multicultural fantasy and science fiction for children and young adults. And there’s another reason, too: serving underserved readers, opening up FSF to readers of color who might not have felt like FSF reflected them. Think about it: how many fantasies have you read in which the mythos is NOT based in Celtic or Western European folklore? How many fantasy feature protagonists who are Asian, African American (or black, if in a world that doesn’t have an “America”), or mixed-race?
They exist. But there aren’t that many of them. After all, that’s why Racefail was such a huge discussion.
There are SO many cultures, fairy tales, myths, and legends from all over the world that writers can tap into, so when we open for submissions (which I hope will be in January, if our Kickstarter campaign is successful), there are a few cultures I’ll be looking for more actively because I’m more familiar with them, but I also love to just be surprised by a dang good story. For example, I’ve only read one YA fantasy based on Japanese mythology-Little Sister by Kara Dalkey-and would love to see more. I also love Chinese, Lao, Thai, and many other Asian stories, and would love to see more stories here in the States that draw upon those cultures.
I also think that there is a largely untapped amount of African American and African folklore. One of my first books with Mirrorstone, for example, grew out of the author wondering what kind of story she might get from mashing Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Marsh King’s Daughter” with Gullah culture, one of the cultures that grew up among African American slaves of the South. The reason I jumped on that story was because I’ve never seen a fantasy story set in Gullah culture, that truly researched hoodoo and voodoo and other religious beliefs and treated them in a non-“magical Negro” sort of way, but rather approached it from inside the culture. Nnedi Okorafor’s The Shadow Seeker does this, and there should be more books like this out there.
We had a book in the Hallowmere series (which is the same series that grew from “The Marsh King’s Daughter”), that featured a Hopi girl. Sadly, the series was canceled before that book came out, because I think that the writer blended well the world of the story-an original fantasy story that drew upon many cultures-and Hopi mythology. But I’m always wary of the line between cultural appropriation and creative inspiration, especially when the culture inspiring the author is not my own or the author’s own.
This is also an argument, though, for encouraging young authors of color and from minority cultures. Right now, most books that are set in “other” cultures (I hate to use the word “other” because it has a specific meaning, the “othering” of people being the opposite of being able to identify with them)-most books set in these cultures tend to be written by white authors. While it’s good that these cultures are getting more light shone on them, I think it’s equally important to keep an eye out for writers shining a light on their own cultures. I’m certainly not one to discourage a white author from connecting with a culture not his or her own and writing in that setting-a lot of great books have come of that, and I think it should continue. But I also think that when we’re aware of that issue, we can, as readers, start seeking out more diverse authors, as well.
The connection between myth, folklore, and modern fantasy
Fairy tales tend to be plot-driven. Rarely do you get a glimpse into the characters. They tend to be pretty flat-it’s just the nature of the storytelling form.
A good retelling explores the motivations that might drive a character to do the sometimes strange things that people do in fairy tales and legends. It becomes more character-driven-the plot hopefully starts to make logical sense within the world of the story. A good retelling should also flesh out a culture, the world that the character lives in. “Worldbuilding” is a term used by many fantasy authors that reflects the amount of investment in a setting that brings those cultural details to life-that allows us to see into the everyday life of the characters we care about.
One fairy tale retelling that stands out to me, that I always recommend to everyone I talk to as my favorite of her titles (which is saying a lot, because she’s one of my favorite authors) is Book of a Thousand Days by Shannon Hale. Shannon takes a pretty thin Grimms’ tale and plops it down in a Mongolia-like fantasy world, then gives us the unique perspective not of the rich girl locked up in the tower, but that of the lady’s maid who got locked in there with her, a girl who in fairy tales is generally overlooked (unless she’s a third daughter off to prove her worth to the world, of course-but those tend to be farm boys, not ladies’ maids). This is one of my favorite kinds of multicultural fantasy-the interstitial and intercultural ways we “mash” worlds like Shannon did in this book.
My most recent read was Cindy Pon’s Silver Phoenix, which isn’t directly based on a folk tale, but the demons, the other supernatural beings, and the magic system all draw from Chinese mythology in new and interesting ways. Ai Ling goes on a quest to find her father-plenty of people go on quests in fantasy books-but that quest takes Ai Ling on a journey in which she has to navigate a culture very unwelcoming for a girl, and the story fleshes out supernatural beings, demons, and monsters inspired by Chinese mythology that readers might not be as familiar with as they might be with vampires, fairies, or werewolves.
The bottom line: characters and settings come alive in retellings in a way that the fairy tales themselves can’t, by their nature, flesh out.
Fangs-fur-fey: what comes next?
I think the pendulum is swinging more toward science fiction again, honestly, rather than more fairy tale retellings. But there’s always going to be a demand for good fantasy, for exciting quests, for scary monsters and heroic protagonists and bad guys to root against.
Young readers identify with the hero’s journey. They are in the same place in life, figuring out how to set off in the world to make their fortune.
Whether that means setting off from the only village you’ve ever known surrounded by zombies (Forest of Hands and Teeth) or saving your own life and that of your friend in a live TV death match (Hunger Games) or setting off to the capital to find your father, who has disappeared, and battling demons along the way (Silver Phoenix), each of the characters figures herself out along the journey-some better than others, of course.
So what’s the next big thing? I don’t know! My crystal ball often only starts to glow after I’ve read something that sets off my radar. That’s the caprice of being an editor. “I know it when I see it” might be a cop-out in many ways, but hopefully that also opens the door wider for writers, allowing you to be inspired, and allowing us all to take a little chance. If you can tell a good story that readers connect with, you’ll make that next big monster matter to me, even if I never heard of it before the day I read it.
This happened with Hallowmere. I don’t think I’d even heard of Gullah culture-at least, not by name-before the story was pitched to me. But now I find the culture fascinating. What kinds of sparks can you set off with your own story?
I asked Stacy to pop by the blog and talk to us about Tu, asking her some questions in my initial e-mail. Happily, she responded to all three. So now, I'll turn it over to Stacy. (If you'd like to contribute to getting Tu off the ground, you can visit the kickstarter page to make a donation.)
--
One of the things I love most about fantasy and science fiction is that you can imagine yourself, the reader, in the characters’ shoes in these fantastic worlds and epic stories. What I love most about reading SFF stories set in cultures I’m not a member of is that I can do not only that, but also see things through the eyes of someone very different from myself, yet still identify with that character and feel the human connection-that perhaps we’re not as different as outward appearance might imply.
This is why the small press I’m starting, Tu Publishing, will focus on multicultural fantasy and science fiction for children and young adults. And there’s another reason, too: serving underserved readers, opening up FSF to readers of color who might not have felt like FSF reflected them. Think about it: how many fantasies have you read in which the mythos is NOT based in Celtic or Western European folklore? How many fantasy feature protagonists who are Asian, African American (or black, if in a world that doesn’t have an “America”), or mixed-race?
They exist. But there aren’t that many of them. After all, that’s why Racefail was such a huge discussion.
There are SO many cultures, fairy tales, myths, and legends from all over the world that writers can tap into, so when we open for submissions (which I hope will be in January, if our Kickstarter campaign is successful), there are a few cultures I’ll be looking for more actively because I’m more familiar with them, but I also love to just be surprised by a dang good story. For example, I’ve only read one YA fantasy based on Japanese mythology-Little Sister by Kara Dalkey-and would love to see more. I also love Chinese, Lao, Thai, and many other Asian stories, and would love to see more stories here in the States that draw upon those cultures.
I also think that there is a largely untapped amount of African American and African folklore. One of my first books with Mirrorstone, for example, grew out of the author wondering what kind of story she might get from mashing Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Marsh King’s Daughter” with Gullah culture, one of the cultures that grew up among African American slaves of the South. The reason I jumped on that story was because I’ve never seen a fantasy story set in Gullah culture, that truly researched hoodoo and voodoo and other religious beliefs and treated them in a non-“magical Negro” sort of way, but rather approached it from inside the culture. Nnedi Okorafor’s The Shadow Seeker does this, and there should be more books like this out there.
We had a book in the Hallowmere series (which is the same series that grew from “The Marsh King’s Daughter”), that featured a Hopi girl. Sadly, the series was canceled before that book came out, because I think that the writer blended well the world of the story-an original fantasy story that drew upon many cultures-and Hopi mythology. But I’m always wary of the line between cultural appropriation and creative inspiration, especially when the culture inspiring the author is not my own or the author’s own.
This is also an argument, though, for encouraging young authors of color and from minority cultures. Right now, most books that are set in “other” cultures (I hate to use the word “other” because it has a specific meaning, the “othering” of people being the opposite of being able to identify with them)-most books set in these cultures tend to be written by white authors. While it’s good that these cultures are getting more light shone on them, I think it’s equally important to keep an eye out for writers shining a light on their own cultures. I’m certainly not one to discourage a white author from connecting with a culture not his or her own and writing in that setting-a lot of great books have come of that, and I think it should continue. But I also think that when we’re aware of that issue, we can, as readers, start seeking out more diverse authors, as well.
The connection between myth, folklore, and modern fantasy
Fairy tales tend to be plot-driven. Rarely do you get a glimpse into the characters. They tend to be pretty flat-it’s just the nature of the storytelling form.
A good retelling explores the motivations that might drive a character to do the sometimes strange things that people do in fairy tales and legends. It becomes more character-driven-the plot hopefully starts to make logical sense within the world of the story. A good retelling should also flesh out a culture, the world that the character lives in. “Worldbuilding” is a term used by many fantasy authors that reflects the amount of investment in a setting that brings those cultural details to life-that allows us to see into the everyday life of the characters we care about.
One fairy tale retelling that stands out to me, that I always recommend to everyone I talk to as my favorite of her titles (which is saying a lot, because she’s one of my favorite authors) is Book of a Thousand Days by Shannon Hale. Shannon takes a pretty thin Grimms’ tale and plops it down in a Mongolia-like fantasy world, then gives us the unique perspective not of the rich girl locked up in the tower, but that of the lady’s maid who got locked in there with her, a girl who in fairy tales is generally overlooked (unless she’s a third daughter off to prove her worth to the world, of course-but those tend to be farm boys, not ladies’ maids). This is one of my favorite kinds of multicultural fantasy-the interstitial and intercultural ways we “mash” worlds like Shannon did in this book.
My most recent read was Cindy Pon’s Silver Phoenix, which isn’t directly based on a folk tale, but the demons, the other supernatural beings, and the magic system all draw from Chinese mythology in new and interesting ways. Ai Ling goes on a quest to find her father-plenty of people go on quests in fantasy books-but that quest takes Ai Ling on a journey in which she has to navigate a culture very unwelcoming for a girl, and the story fleshes out supernatural beings, demons, and monsters inspired by Chinese mythology that readers might not be as familiar with as they might be with vampires, fairies, or werewolves.
The bottom line: characters and settings come alive in retellings in a way that the fairy tales themselves can’t, by their nature, flesh out.
Fangs-fur-fey: what comes next?
I think the pendulum is swinging more toward science fiction again, honestly, rather than more fairy tale retellings. But there’s always going to be a demand for good fantasy, for exciting quests, for scary monsters and heroic protagonists and bad guys to root against.
Young readers identify with the hero’s journey. They are in the same place in life, figuring out how to set off in the world to make their fortune.
Whether that means setting off from the only village you’ve ever known surrounded by zombies (Forest of Hands and Teeth) or saving your own life and that of your friend in a live TV death match (Hunger Games) or setting off to the capital to find your father, who has disappeared, and battling demons along the way (Silver Phoenix), each of the characters figures herself out along the journey-some better than others, of course.
So what’s the next big thing? I don’t know! My crystal ball often only starts to glow after I’ve read something that sets off my radar. That’s the caprice of being an editor. “I know it when I see it” might be a cop-out in many ways, but hopefully that also opens the door wider for writers, allowing you to be inspired, and allowing us all to take a little chance. If you can tell a good story that readers connect with, you’ll make that next big monster matter to me, even if I never heard of it before the day I read it.
This happened with Hallowmere. I don’t think I’d even heard of Gullah culture-at least, not by name-before the story was pitched to me. But now I find the culture fascinating. What kinds of sparks can you set off with your own story?