Ask the Author: Theodora Goss
Answered Questions (23)
Theodora Goss
I'm so glad you like it! :) The publisher asked for three novels, so there are just the three for now--the third one comes out in October. But I would love to write some more stories about these characters . . . :) So there may be more stories in the future.
Theodora Goss
No, although I love that connection, and Mary Jekyll is temperamentally a lot like Mary Debenham! Actually I named her and Diana at the same time, and the idea came from the Victorian-era book The Great God Pan by Arthur Machen, where one important character is named Mary and the other is Helen. One traditionally Christian name, one classical Greek name. That was the same split I wanted with Mary and Diana. :) Diana represents a sort of ancient wildness, and Mary is the opposite of that . . .
Theodora Goss
I'm so glad you like them! There was some talk of a television series, but I honestly don't know where that is in the process . . . of course I would love to see it on screen, and I think these would be fun characters for actresses to portray. And as a teacher myself, I'm so glad the books work as teaching resources . . . :)
Theodora Goss
I'm so glad you like them! :) The publisher has asked for three, so the current plan is for the three I've written, and the third one does wrap up a bunch of storylines that started in the first and second. :)
Theodora Goss
No, but that sounds wonderful! It would be great to get a history of the world from the women's perspective . . . And so necessary, really, since we so rarely get to hear what the women were doing or had to say! :) And I will definitely look for the Miles book.
Theodora Goss
Merci beaucoup! :) I have not, but I love Bradbury and I absolutely should. And I really hope your daughters like it whenever they're old enough for it. :)
Theodora Goss
Anytime and all the time! :)
Theodora Goss
Yes! It will be either September or October of 2019. I had to take some extra time with it because I did a bunch of research in Cornwall . . . :) I'm so glad you're looking forward to it!
Theodora Goss
I'm so glad you like it, and thank you for writing! I have no idea why a question mark is required? :) It was so much fun to write, and the third book, which wraps up the whole series, has been send to my editor . . .
Theodora Goss
Good luck on your novel! :) There's been some talk about adapting the Athena Club books for the screen, but we'll see if it goes anywhere? I would love to see a screen adaptations--that would be so much fun!
Theodora Goss
The first book is written about a year after the events it describes. :)
Theodora Goss
I'm so glad you liked the first book! The second one will be out in a few months . . . And what a fun question. I would love to write one of Catherine's shilling shockers. Just because you asked, I thought you might like to know the complete list of her titles, as of right now. :) I had a lot of fun making these up and imagining what they might be about . . .
The Mysteries of Astarte
The Adventures of Rick Chambers
Rick Chambers and Astarte
Rick Chambers on Venus
Invasion of the Cat Women
The Death of Astarte
The Resurrection of Astarte
Rick Chambers, Jr. in the Caverns of Doom.
The Mysteries of Astarte
The Adventures of Rick Chambers
Rick Chambers and Astarte
Rick Chambers on Venus
Invasion of the Cat Women
The Death of Astarte
The Resurrection of Astarte
Rick Chambers, Jr. in the Caverns of Doom.
Theodora Goss
Athena Club III! The Something Something of the Mesmerizing Girl . . .
Theodora Goss
The writing. :) I love the actual writing . . .
Theodora Goss
At first, you're going to think you're pretty good, but you're not going to be very good. Then you'll get much better. At that point, you're going to think you're not very good, because the better you get, the more you'll see flaws in your own work. So my advice is, keep working and learning--and realize that the better you get, the harder writing will be and the harder you will work at it--because you'll be getting a lot more ambitious. And the better you get, the more you will question yourself. You have to persist through the valley of self-doubt. Eventually, you'll be a much more perceptive judge of your own work and the work of others. But if it's getting harder, if you're doubting yourself more, that's not necessarily a bad sign. It could mean that you're developing a better sense of where you are and where you want to go . . .
Theodora Goss
This is one of Goodreads' standard questions, but I feel as though I should answer it because it's something people often want to know. The answer is that I don't really get writer's block, because if one thing isn't working, I move on to something else. If a novel is stalled, I write a story. If a story's not working, I write a poem. That always seems to help. The other thing is, I'm so busy that I can't afford to waste time not writing. Having to do something, thinking of writing as a job you really have to do, also helps. I'm lucky that I haven't had a problem with it, but I think it's switching things up and also just not having time to not write . . .
Theodora Goss
They were such a pain in the butt! (Now Mary's going to get on my case for saying "butt.") :) Seriously, I love them, but they did take on a life of their own, and they really did insist on saying things their way, and arguing, and getting on each others' nerves, as I'm pretty sure five girls/women living together would. I'm very glad you liked the novel! I'm revising the second one right now . . .
Theodora Goss
I'm glad you like it so far! :) I wrote short fiction for a long time because I was doing a doctoral dissertation, and that was all I had time for. This novel started as a novella called "The Mad Scientist's Daughter," published on Strange Horizons. I decided to expand it because I just loved the characters so much. I thought they deserved to tell their own stories . . . I don't know, of the novel ideas, it felt the most urgent? And I also loved doing the research!
Theodora Goss
The sequel should be out next summer! That was not just a tease--Mary and the others really are going on another adventure. And good question--I think the title could refer to any one of them . . . :) I'm so glad you liked the book!
Theodora Goss
I'm so glad you like it. :) I do have some recommendations, although honestly, most of what I read for the dissertation was literary criticism, which isn't exactly fun reading. But I really liked Stephen T. Asma's On Monsters: An Unnatural History of Our Worst Fears, which is a really interesting book for any reader, not just a geeky grad student. More technical is George Stocking's Victorian Anthropology, which is dense but very well-written. And then, not for the dissertation but for the book, I liked Liza Picard's Victorian London, which is about London 18-40-1870, just before the period I was studying, and a really fun, smart book is How to be a Victorian: A Dawn-to-Dusk Guide to Victorian Life by Ruth Goodman. The Goodman and Asma are the most fun and accessible, but they're all interesting. Happy reading! :)
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