Ysabeau Wilce Interview
Ysabeau Wilce landed a nomination on the Nebula ballot for the Andre Norton Award with her first novel, Flora Segunda: Being the Magickal Mishaps of a Girl of Spirit, Her Glass-Gazing Sidekick, Two Ominous Butlers (One Blue), a House with Eleven Thousand Rooms, and a Red Dog (Magic Carpet Books)
What was the original inspiration for Flora Segunda
I didn’t have any particular inspiration in mind. I just sat down one day and started to write, and Flora Segunda
That title is quite a mouthful. Why such a long title?
Back in the nineteenth century it was common for books to have long sub-titles. Since books back then didn’t have dust jackets, the only way for a reader to get an idea of what the book was about was via a sub-title. I liked the idea — so baroque — and luckily, my editor was willing to indulge me! Plus, it fits with Flora’s long-winded style.
All your fiction to date is set in a city called Califa. Would you describe briefly what Califa looks like? And is it based on any one place we could find in our world?
The Republic of Califa is on the west coast of a very large continent. Within the republic’s boundaries can be found craggy mountains, large tracks of deep forest, a verdant stretch of farmland, several small towns, and one major city: the City of Califa. Califa is based somewhat on a location on our planet, and I think canny readers will find it easy, both via name and description, to figure out where that place is!
Do the characters living in Califa ever bump into other characters from different stories?
All my characters are very intertwined — Califa is not that big a place after all. Pretty much everyone knows everyone else, so the odds of one of character popping up in another story are pretty strong! I also like to drop little connections in all my work, so that if you’ve read one story you might recognize a person or a place from another story. It’s an easy way to give a story some extra depth, helps develop Califa’s history, and it’s also fun for the readers to be able to connect the dots if they so choose. I consider all my stories to be small parts of a greater historical whole.
The first “character” we get to meet is Flora’s house, Crackpot Hall, an enormous (eleven thousand rooms!) magical house with lots of hidden spaces.
What was the inspiration for this unique house?
When I was a kid we lived overseas and I had the opportunity to visit many, many castles and palaces. The scale and size of these magnificent buildings made a great impression upon me, and I always wondered what it would be like to actually live in an enormous house that had a long and storied history. Of course, none of these castles or palaces had praterhuman butlers — I’m not actually sure where that particular bit of inspiration came from!
How would you describe Flora, and do you see much of yourself in this character when you were 14 years old?
Flora is both obnoxious and courageous, smart and hare-brained, impetuous and good-hearted, and for someone so thought-less, she thinks a bit too much! Whether or not those qualities could have been applied to me at the same age — you’d have to ask my parents! Clearly I didn’t have the opportunities she has had to get into quite the same type of troubles that she does, which was probably quite a good thing!
How does it feel to be a first-time author and to have your first novel earn such high acclaim?
I feel lucky and grateful, and a bit bemused by at all. When it’s your imagination, it is easy to feel that everything you come up with is old hat. Thus, it’s very gratifying to have other people think your ideas are quite clever. And it’s even more gratifying to have other people enjoy playing in your world as much as you do!
How did it feel to be on the ballot as a first-time novelist with authors such as J. K. Rowling?
Lucky and grateful — and I knew I had no chance of winning against her, so I also felt relief. With no hope comes no pressure, as Nini Mo once said.
What kind of feedback have you received from the young readers who’ve read your book?
I’ve had very good feedback — most readers who take the time to write me do so because they enjoyed the book. I always enjoy hearing from young readers because they are uncensored in their enthusiasm. My favorite feedback, tho’ came from a young reader who reviewed Flora Segunda
Have you always wanted to write? What made you decide to write a novel?
I have always liked to write. I love telling stories, and I love playing with words, and I love language, and I love making things up, so what else could I do? As far as novel writing goes — I don’t set out to write novels, I set out to tell a story and most of the time it takes so many words to tell the story that I end up with a novel!
What draws you to writing for young readers?
I don’t write specifically to young readers — I just try to tell a good story. In Flora Segunda’s case, when I realized that the novel would probably be published as young adult, I did slant some of my writing in a YA direction — I tried not to be too preachy, tried to remain true to the rebellious spirit of youth, and tried to keep the pace up. But otherwise, I just try to tell a good story and I am delighted when people of all ages enjoy reading it.
What is it about 19th century military culture in particular that appeals to you?
There was a huge dichotomy in the 19th century Army. The gallantry and the mud. Heroes and cads. Officers were supposed to be gentlemen, and The Articles of War demanded that they behaved as gentlemen, but they often didn’t. On the frontier, Army life was so closed and constrained that Army women, tho’ not soldiers, had a great influence on military culture. Plus, I am really fond of frockcoats.
I read that you have a speakeasy in your house. How did you come to have a speakeasy in your house and would you describe it?
Alas, I can take no credit for the speakeasy in our flat — it came with the flat and we just enjoy it. In our main hallway there is a mysterious door; open it, and you go down a very narrow set of stairs, through the main part of the basement, and into a little corridor that has a bar in it. Beyond that is a small dark room with a pool table and many trophy cases. The whole set-up is very creepy — I never go down there without expecting to see a body sprawled on the floor! The flat was built in 1912, and I think the speakeasy must go back to Prohibition, when people found it more convivial to drink illegally in their own homes.
Who were the literary influences for you as a kid? And now that you’re an adult?
My biggest influences were, and remain, William Shakespeare, T.H. White (The Once and Future King
The sequel to Flora Segunda
Flora’s Fury, Or How A Girl of Sand Does a Bunch of Really Cool Things that I Am Still Making Up Right Now should be out sometime in 2010!
Ysabeau S. Wilce was born in California and has followed the drum throughout Alaska, Spain, Mexico, Arizona, and Elsewhere. After training as a military historian, Ysabeau turned to fiction when the truth no longer compared favorably to the shining lies of her imagination. Her stories have been published in Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction and various anthologies. Her work has been nominated for the World Fantasy Award, the Andre Norton Award, and been short-listed for the Tiptree Award.
When Ysabeau is not writing, she drinks cappuccinos and reads trashy nineteenth century novels, waiting for inspiration to strike again. She currently resides in the Midwest, with her husband, a cheese-swilling financier, and a border collie named Bothwell. They do not have a Butler. You may also find her at her blog.
By day, Jen West runs the corporate rat race working in women’s wear design and merchandising for an upscale clothing manufacturer. By night she’s a mild-mannered freelance writer in constant search for the next interesting character or story.
Her interviews have appeared in such venues as Shimmer and Fairwood Press’s interview collection, Human Visions. She has degrees in Journalism and French from the University of Oregon, and remembers fondly the pressure of meeting deadlines at the Oregon Daily Emerald as a staff writer. She currently resides with her writer husband, Ken Scholes, two pudgy cats and a box garden in St. Helens, OR. Drop her a note at .
