Part Of The Appeal Of The Fantastic

In The Field Of Fantastic Fiction, The Question Of World-building Is Not Uncontroversial. But I Grew Up With 'dungeons And Dragons,' So That Whole World-building Thing Is Very Close To My Heart.

When I'm Writing A Book, Generally I Start With The Mood And Setting, Along With A Couple Of Specific Images—things That Have Come Into My Head, Totally Abstracted From Any Narrative, That I've Fixated On. After That, I Construct A World, Or An Area, Into Which That General Setting, That Atmosphere, And The Specific Images I've Focused On Can Fit.

A City Like London Was Always Going To Be A Paradox, The Best Of It So Very Riddled With The Opposite, So Swiss-cheesed With Moral Holes.

People Have Wanted To Narrate Since First We Banged Rocks Together & Wondered About Fire. There’ll Be Tellings As Long As There Are Any Of Us Here, Until The Stars Disappear One By One Like Turned-out Lights.

Books Are Always Obviously Having Conversations With Other Books, And Some Times They're Amiable And Sometimes Not.