Describe your desk
The desk itself is a simple thing of some sort of fake wood for the top and a black metal frame. I think it was clearance somewhere for, like, under fifty bucks. That's not really important though. My desk is set up for what I mentally call *business things* and I use it when focusing is especially difficult and/or I am working on a task that is technical. (Website maintenance, polishing edits, formatting, that sort of thing.) It's positioned in front of window--not for me, for Beanie the cat who only cares about this window when I am trying to work at the desk, so space on the desk has been sacrificed for her. It has a few other official writer's desk type accessories on it besides the cat--a coffee cup decorated with rainbows and unicorns which is full of pens (.5 black Sharpies. Fine pens are so helpful for someone with terrible handwriting like mine), a small filing rack for things for me to "remember" to get to (I immediately forget), a desk lamp, a mini stapler, a scented candle I haven't actually lit yet (Dry Martini-scented, a gift), and a pen shaped like a pink flamingo. Next to the desk are the stickable whiteboards for reminders I am not allowed to forget and a weekly schedule for the novel writing... which I sort of stick to. It helps, though. Every writer has to find what works for them, and nagging myself with notes in different colored dry erase markers apparently helps me.
My *real* desk, for writing, is my couch, and sometimes my tiny armchair in the sun, which is as close to basking in the sunshine as I get, lol. And if it's time to just *think* about a story, or daydream, which is often the same thing, then I go to the storage room which has a spare bed for guests (and the other cat) shoved into the corner, and I lie on the bed in the dark with shadows and lights from the street traffic below bouncing off the walls, and I consider the problem of stories and how to write them.
Can you explain some of your world building process?
How I world build? I truly wish I was methodical about it so it would be easier to explain. I’m actually a mess. I do not start out with an idea, like, “magical creatures in the modern world” and then expand outward from there in a step-by-step manner. I wrote Some Kind of Magic for giggles, and submitted it to a romance publisher because why not? Not a huge amount of forethought went into it, and it was never intended to be part of a series. But what thought did go into was like… well...
There is a werewolf detective. (Well, he has to wear a tie so there can be flirty tie-pulling.) His partner is also magical. Hmm they are the only ones? That is a problem. Also he’s a wolf but he lives in the city? Anyway, his soulmate is a fairy (part fairy) twink and growly tie-wearing wolf has Angst about it. Fairy is an old slur for gay men and I’m not going to pretend that isn’t the subtext here. So whatever city they are in (which is not at all San Francisco-like *cough*) would have a wild or ‘gay’ area where the ‘fairies’ are. But you know, the annoying thing about urban fantasy is that it often uses magical creatures as substitutes for real people in the real world dealing with prejudice and systemic abuse and that is obviously bad, so the fairies, and therefore the werewolves and everyone else, have to exist alongside the other mistreated humans and suffer some similar and some different treatment. This story is not (fully) about that, or is not intended to go in depth about it, but I will sprinkle some of it in as I go, along with some historical “facts” to help make that clear. The town has a fairy village that is full of gays and hippies with the fairies. None of Ray’s coworkers are fully comfortable with him as a wolf, and poor Ray does not really let himself question it (a thing I noticed more on later rereads than I did when I was writing it).
At the time, I thought, a little, about what it would be like to have heightened senses yet live in a world full of people who don’t and are also not interested in accommodating yours (another theme I did not notice at the time.) but who *are* unsettled by them. I built Ray out accordingly, but not like, in an organized manner. There are no notes on how to make a Ray. I imagined a growly wolf cop in the city (who wears suits which is actually ridiculous because he’s a goddamn wolf) and I thought about what someone like that might do, but I didn’t consciously sketch him out. I hate to use the term “organically” to describe things, but, well, yeah. He has, if you notice, only one real friend. He is hungry nearly all the time but either eats at home or in his car or with Penn in some ‘acceptable’ way. Everyone assumes he is violent, all the time, despite the fact that we only see him remotely get rough when Cal is threatened, and, let's be real, Ray was not winning that final fight. He intensely modifies his behavior around humans and any smaller creatures. (Oh Raymond.) It’s kind of hilarious actually, that I put that thought in but didn’t realize until years later exactly how fucked up Ray is. We like him growly and hot and sweetly possessive but oh wow is Ray fucked up. The natural outgrowth of the world I made for fun—which is how I end up with shit like Little Wolf.
But yeah I didn’t really sit down and map out Ray's powers or his career path or anything. I added stuff to that story as I needed it. I used legends and tropes about werewolves, and the stories about the fae and made some silliness. (With puns!) Then a few years later, very sick and depressed and wanting comfort, I was like, well let’s add a dragon shifter to this universe since I already mentioned them, and now here we are, crying over a golden bird who is sad.
SO. Having now made this world, and wanting to do more of it, did I stop to create storyboards or do a spreadsheet or a wiki?
… No. Sometime after writing Treasure for Treasure I made a timeline on a piece of scratch paper. I recently tried to recreate it only to realize that time had gone by and all my stories do not exist concurrently and that John Summers is in his 70s now, I think. What?? He was just a newly elected young man storming city hall in a feather boa, I swear! (Also that Hyacinth is about 125 when we last saw him. A baby!)
What actually happens is that most of the universe is in my head, and I write stuff, but then realize certain details are fuzzy so I go back to the book in question and look it up and hopefully everything matches up. I am essentially the not-rich Bertie with no Arthur around to keep track of my stuff. Also I write the short stories out of order and sometimes facts get muddled and I don’t notice until later—stop screaming it’s fine.
Actual world building for me is about being specific about some things (ie WWI as the return date of magic to much of the Western world) and being vague about others so I can expand on them as needed. It mostly works for me. Mostly. :)
