Interview: Holly Lisle's Forward Motion

There's a place on the Web where dragons roam the skies, wizards cast their spells and vampires - or even stranger creatures - lurk in the darkness. It's a place where hardy adventurers meet to discuss their quest or seek advice from others who have followed the same path.

The place is the Forward Motion Writer's Community (http://www.hollylisle.com), fantasy author Holly Lisle's home on the Web.

If you had visited Lisle's site in 1995, you would have found a simple page with a few writing tips. If you visit today, you'll find a thriving community of writers, a place with a free exchange of ideas, advice and encouragement.

When she began the site, Lisle had no idea what her creation would evolve into.

"I figured I'd post a bunch of writing articles and then - as the bug hit me - a LOT of writing articles, and that would be it," she said. "But the Internet is a seductive place - and was particularly seductive in 1999-2000, when the dot-coms thought they'd created a way of minting money and everything on the Web was free."

That's when Lisle's site really began to change. The availability of free tools made it easy to experiment with message boards, chat rooms, classes and plenty of other interactive features. Now, the site has over 2,000 members, though not all are active, and gains around 20 new members a month.

"I kept thinking about all these people who wrote to me - thinking they would really like each other, and we could have a lot of fun and do cool things if I had some way to bring them all together," she said.

"The explosion of freebie Web tools made that possible. I have to pay now - the days of free on the Internet are gone. But now everything works - at least most of the time - and I know the price is worth it to me."

Lazette Gifford, who designed the original Forward Motion page almost seven years ago, is also surprised and pleased by what's happened at the site

"(Holly) has taken over and expanded in ways I never imagined," Gifford said. "I'm amazed at how much it's grown and how much time and energy Holly is willing to expend to help new writers."

Lisle says she considers that something she owes to the people who helped her, people like well-known fantasy and science fiction writers Mercedes Lackey and Stephen Leigh.

"Stephen rubbed the stupid out of my storytelling, and Misty showed me how to treat writing as a profession, not a hobby," Lisle said. "I couldn't pay either one of them back. But I could pay forward - that Robert Heinlein adage is some of the best advice he ever gave - and when I discovered the cool Web tools, I figured out how I could pay forward."

Lisle says that's how the site works - not just for her, but for everyone there. The spirit of Forward Motion is people helping each other.

"That's the coin of the site, the stated agreement," she said. "If something or someone helps you reach your dreams, then when you have the opportunity to help someone else, you take it."

And writers have found help in Lisle's community. Users like Jim Mills, Robert Sloan and Julia Pass praise the site's boards, classes and the inspiration they find there.

"The site really got me motivated to write more and actually think about what I was writing," said Pass, who now serves as a moderator. "It's also helped me to put more into my writing than just a plot, so now it actually says something."

Kay House credits Lisle's site with kicking her fiction writing into gear. House says she's wanted to write fiction since she was a child, but had never been able to get it going.

"My hard drive got littered with false starts. Despite the fact that I have finished more pieces of non-fiction than I could possibly count, I despaired of ever finishing one piece of even the shortest, most mediocre fiction," House said. "Within a month of finding the site, I had finished a short story. Not a good short story, or a long one, but a finished one - and finished was the goal."

Most users say the camaraderie keeps them coming back as much as the writing help.

"The community has a unique, stimulating atmosphere where in one sense, everyone's equal," Sloan said. "Every writer here is unique. We're all striving for the same difficult goals, and the same stresses affect popular, published successful members, as well as talented young writers who are beginning their careers in high school."

Gifford says there's no other site quite like it, and the information and help she finds there is invaluable.

"Having instant contact with a community of writers is probably one of the biggest changes in the lives of authors since the invention of the typewriter," she said. "There is almost always a person or two in chat willing to talk out plotting problems or share a triumph."

The community also continues to grow with new classes and opportunities for members. On a recent Saturday afternoon, members were given a chance to chat with a book editor from a major publishing company. Insights like those are invaluable say members.

Lisle says she feels a great deal of satisfaction and delight when a member of the community succeeds.

"My objective is to one day have an entire shelf of books by site members," she said.

But she's quick to point out that success comes primarily from the work the member puts in. The site just gives them tools that will help.

"I don't justifiably get to be proud. That would be like a hammer manufacturer being proud of someone using his hammer to build a gorgeous Victorian mansion or a castle," Lisle said. "Forward Motion is a place where you can get a wide selection of tools, and I think they're pretty good tools. But the folks who have the drive and the passion to build castles would figure out a way to do it with their teeth if no other tools were available."

Lisle says the biggest push now is to get a more stable interface for the site, but that's going to be a challenge. She says pricier packages aren't in her budget, and she refuses to charge for membership.

"More people need to buy my books so that I can afford a more reliable back-end for the community," Lisle jokes.

Other than that, she says she'd like to see the community continue on its present course.

"I think I'd just like to see more of what we already have," she said. "More writers participating in critiquing each other's work, more people volunteering to teach classes on their specialties, more passionate discussions about writing, more people finding a place where others share their love of words, more people bouncing onto the discussion board screaming, `They just bought my story!'

"That's a wonderful thing to see when I log on in the morning."

Review: "Vincalis the Agitator" by Holly Lisle

There is always a price for magic, and in Holly Lisle's latest, "Vincalis the Agitator" (Warner Aspect), that price is high indeed.

The Dragons, an elite group of wizards that run the Empire of the Hars Ticlarim, have a problem. They've been converting the bodies of Warreners - people raised in captivity much like cattle - into magical energy to sustain their amazing cities that float in the air or hide beneath the waves. But that energy isn't enough anymore. They need more power, so they turn to a darker fuel source - the burning of souls.

Wraith was born in the Warrens, but for some reason was immune to the magic in the wayfare - drugged food that's pumped to the Warreners to keep them mindless and docile. When he's caught stealing bread in the Aboves, he stumbles into the home Solander Artis, a member of a highly placed Stolti family and son of a member of the Dragon council. Solander is intrigued by Wraith's immunity to magic and offers to free him and his friend Jess from the Warrens in exchange for the opportunity to study him.

Years later, Wraith, now known as Gellas Tomersin, continues his quest to free the Warreners. He produces a number of plays from a mysterious playwright named Vincalis that are intended to make people think about the luxuries they have and how they're powered.

At the same time, Solander is working on a new form of magic that doesn't require the sacrifice of others. But a shadowy group of leaders known as the Silent Inquest knows about their efforts and has decided that they are a threat to the power of the Dragons. Things are about to get ugly.

In "Vincalis," Lisle takes a trip back in time in the world of her popular "Secret Texts" trilogy. The book illuminates the history of the Dragons and the origins of the Falcons and their holy books, the Secret Texts. Aside from the history lesson about the world of Matrin, it's also a very good story and easily accessible to those who may not be familiar with her previous work.

The book was originally planned as a three-book, 600,000-word epic, but was trimmed down through what Lisle calls a "brutal" process. The result is a tightly-plotted, action-packed tale that will take readers on a roller coaster ride of emotions.

Lisle mingles classic fantasy adventure with the feel of a science fiction novel and even mixes in a touch of horror. The book also has some statements to make about political corruption and social segregation. Oh, and don't forget about the Illuminati-like Silent Inquest.

The characters are realistic, sharing the same conflicts that most people deal with, while also striving to change the world. Though their actions are occasionally frustrating, the characters command the sympathy of the reader.

Over the past 10 years, Lisle's work has gotten better with every book, and "Vincalis" continues the trend. I can't wait to see what she has in store for the future.

Interview: Holly Lisle

With 21 novels published in the last decade, you'd think fantasy author Holly Lisle might be ready for a break. But actually, she's working just as hard as ever.

Lisle's latest novel "Vincalis the Agitator" was released earlier this month by Warner Aspect, and another novel "The Memory of Fire" is set for a May release from Avon Eos. She's just finished up a second novel for Eos called "The Wreck of Heaven," and she's currently hard at work pitching her next work to Warner.

Such is the life of the full-time writer - not the glamorous life that many people might envision.

Lisle says there's a common misconception that the writer's life "involves any sort of elegance or grace or adulation by the beautiful people." In fact, she says, it's work - and if you think it's a quick way to become rich and famous, think again.

"My day involves sitting by myself in a dark, cramped workspace, thinking up a story and putting that story on the page, while dressed in sweatpants and baggy T-shirts. There is no filet mignon, no butler, no maid, no champagne, no smoking jacket," she says.

"I work long, hard hours, and when I go to the bookstore, no one recognizes my name from my check and asks me to autograph the books in stock. No one comes up to me in restaurants and tells me he's read my latest. It's a very quiet, private life."

That description may sound a little grim to some, but Lisle says she has no regrets about her choices. She admits that the life of a fantasy writer is unlike any other career you'll come across.

"Your job as a fantasy writer is to think up things that not only never happened, but that never could," Lisle says. "You put them on the page, and then hope that people will pay for the privilege of reading your mind to keep you fed and under a roof. I wake up mornings and am just amazed by the utter weirdness of that."

Lisle left a stable profession to take up the uncertainty of the writing life. She was a registered nurse, but said she cared too much about the patients. Add to that an unhappy marriage, and she was becoming a wreck. She began searching for a way out.

"If you let yourself care about your patients as people, nursing will eat you alive - and it was devouring me," she said. "I needed an escape hatch, and reading wasn't working anymore. I started writing and found something that spoke to me more deeply than anything I'd ever done in my life."

So Lisle took the leap of faith. When she got an offer for a three-book deal, she was so confident of her eventual success that she quit her day job, burned the uniforms in the backyard and didn't keep up her continuing education credits.

"I burned those bridges flat, removing all chance of retreat," she says.

That's not to say she didn't have some second thoughts along the way. Especially in what she calls "nightmare spots" where money was tight and ruin was just around the corner.

"It's a good thing I didn't know when I jumped how hard it would be. If I had seen the future, I don't know that I would have had the nerve to take the plunge," Lisle says. "When it got hard, I looked back on the steady paycheck of nursing, and all I can say is it's a good thing that I did burn my bridges. I might have given up otherwise."

There were second thoughts, but never regrets, Lisle says.

"It's been a roller-coaster ride so far, and the future beckons with the promise of more to come," she says. "It's still uncertain. It's going to be uncertain until the day I die. I think that if I live to be very old, I will look back on my life happily, knowing I gave it a good run."

But Lisle has reason to be excited about the current state of her chosen field. Three of the top films of last year were "Shrek," "Harry Potter" and "The Fellowship of the Ring" - all fantasies. And "Harry Potter" is introducing a whole new generation to the genre.

"Some of the kids and adults who love `Harry Potter' will come looking for `more like that,' and will discover the vast and varied field that is fantasy - and that's a very good thing," she says.

Lisle points out the variety of the genre, which includes the epic tales of J.R.R. Tolkien, the disturbing visions of H.P. Lovecraft and Clive Barker, the erotic dark fantasies of Laurell K. Hamilton and Anne Rice, the literary works of Ursula K. LeGuin and Samuel R. Delaney and everything in between.

"Any field that can house (those authors) under the same umbrella is going to have something for anyone who dares come looking," she says. "Fantasy is an exciting field with wide-open creative opportunities.

"From a writer's point of view, fantasy gives you more chance to completely fall flat on your face and fail than anything else, but more chance to succeed on your own terms, too."

Lisle is still looking for that breakthrough book that propels her to the top of the fantasy field. But even if that never happens, she'll still be happy if someone remembers her work in years to come.

"I want to write books that still have something to say a hundred years from now," she says. "I want to touch lives, make the world a better place, leave something behind that will continue to matter long after I'm dust."

And so what if Holly Lisle never becomes a household name?

"I may fail at everything I set out to accomplish, but I know what I want," she says. "I'm fighting to make it happen, and when I die, I know I will have given it my best run. Because of that, no matter how it all turns out, I will not have wasted my life."

Review: "Diplomacy of Wolves" by Holly Lisle

It's been a while since I checked in with Holly Lisle, but she seems to be doing well. She's got a new world, a new publisher, a new series and even a slightly new approach.

The world is Matrin, and it has been ravaged by sorcery. Magic is now punishable by a gruesome death, but it still thrives in secret. In the depths of their massive keeps, royal families keep bands of Wolves -- magic-users constantly working to improve their house's power and standing.

Kait Galweigh is a diplomat who uncovers a plot against her house, but is unable to stop it. Now, she's on the run and hiding a secret. She possesses a power that means her death if it's discovered, and the time is coming when she must use that power.

I must say, this is probably Lisle's best book to date. It begins as a story of court intrigue and transforms into high adventure. More importantly, it's fun all the way through.

The world of Matrin is well-developed and a little different from the typical fantasy world, featuring some advances not seen in the typical medieval setting. The magic itself is also quite fascinating. The practitioners of the art endure horrific transformations in exchange for the power they wield.

Anyone who is a fan of Lisle's previous works, can certainly see the transformation in her writing. "Diplomacy of Wolves" is more tightly plotted and well-planned than any of her previous works. It's fast-paced, but with a bit of substance as well.

The downside? She falls into one of the biggest traps of fantasy. Lisle interests the reader in the characters and gets him engrossed in the story, then resolves absolutely nothing in the end. The reader is left hanging, and for me, that ruined an otherwise pleasurable read. I maintain that, even in a series, every book should have a conclusion that at least partially satisfies the reader. Had she done that, this would have been an outstanding offering.

It's still a good read and a very solid opening to the series. I highly recommend it -- but I wouldn't start reading it until the others are out.

Review: "Glenraven" by Holly Lisle and Marion Zimmer Bradley

When two women looking for a change in life plan a trip to a small mountain resort in Italy, they get much more than they bargained for.

JayJay Bennington picks up a travel guide to a small principality named Glenraven in her local bookstore. After reading about the charms of the country, and learning that it's only open to tourists for a limited time, she decides on a trip. Her friend Sophie goes along, and together they are pulled into a world very unlike the sleepy North Carolina town they hail from.

The pair learn that the book was a magical artifact sent to their world to bring back heroes, but Sophie and JayJay are far from what they expect.

The most striking thing about this novel is the vividness of the world it's set in. The magical kingdom of Glenraven is brought to life by Bradley and Lisle, a memorable land inhabited by memorable people.

Glenraven is a good read, and I'm looking forward to the sequel.