Big 4 with Bec: Melanie Card

Published August 26, 2011
Category: Big 4 Interviews

Melanie has always been drawn to story telling and can’t remember a time when she wasn’t creating a story in her head. Her early stories were adventures with fairies and dragons and sword swinging princesses. Today she continues to spin tales of magic in lands near and far, while her cat sits on the edge of her desk and supervises. When she’s not writing, you can find her pretending to be other people with her local community theatre groups.

Your latest novel, Ward Against Death, explores the world of necromancy. What a fascinating subject. What first got you interested in that idea, and can you take us through the process of developing the story around that theme?

Thanks so much for inviting me to share with your readers today. I first got onto the idea of playing with the preconceptions of necromancy from a role playing game. I used to game a lot in my teens and still do every now and then. In this game you can play different kinds of characters including a necromancer. However, necromancers, those mages with the ability to control the dead, are often the villains of the story or game and it doesn’t help to have completely evil character in your party (you don’t tend to get much done or one of your members kills you.) Which brought me to the question: in what situation would a necromancer be good?

At the same time I saw Tim Burton’s Sleepy Hollow and loved Johnny Depp’s portrayal of Ichabod Crane. He was quirky and endearing and determined… and he got the girl! I wanted Ichabod to succeed at the great challenges he faced. The idea of that type of character, of a guy just trying to do the right thing and deal with unusual circumstance, combined with the question about in what situation would you find a good necromancer generated my hero, Ward.

Ward is an average Joe (if your average Joe could bring people back from the dead). He wants a nice job and a comfortable life. Unfortunately for him, his family’s business is necromancy and his other career option (physician) ended badly when he was caught digging up corpses to perform illegal necropsies. Ward isn’t evil by any means; he just has this family ability, handed down from generation to generation.

From there the idea just kept growing. What if necromancy wasn’t bad at all? What kind of use would a world have for necromancy? And so Ward’s job now involved bringing people back from the dead for a short time so people could say goodbye (called “wakes”), which started the plot rolling with the question: what would happen if you woke someone from the dead and they insisted that they were murdered?

And that’s how the book ended up about necromancy.

2. Melanie, you’ve said that you’ve always been drawn to storytelling. What is it about storytelling that you love so much? What are some of your all-time favourite stories and why?

I love the adventure and the magic of storytelling. I love how you can be transported to a different world and meet different people. And I love how just telling a story, can brighten someone’s day, or make them forget about their trouble for a little while.

Choosing a favourite, or a few favourite stories, is really difficult. There is, however, one story I always seem to go back to. Mercedes Lackey’s Magic’s Pawn. It makes me cry every time I read it (even though I already know what’s going to happen), but I think that’s because something within me resonates with the hero’s struggle. The hero is different from his family and friends in so many ways and his struggle to learn to understand and accept himself is fraught with terrible circumstance. I think we can all relate to feeling like an outsider at one point or another in our lives and this book just clicks with me on that level.

3. I read that your cat supervises your writing activities. I love that! What is it about authors and cats?

LOL. I have no idea. When I was 4 or 5 my family got a cat from the shelter. I got to name her Muffy (that’s what happens when you let the five year old name the cat). Maybe my parents knew I was going to be a writer. When I moved out, a friend’s cat had a litter and I agreed to take one—she got a much cooler name, Trinity.

Two Christmases ago Trinity died and I thought I’d never get another cat. She had been a great companion and I really missed her. But then we started getting mice in the house. The first time we’d ever seen a mouse! And after attempting to get rid of the unwanted visitors we decided a trip to the shelter for another mouse deterrent was in order.

We brought Kali home, haven’t seen a mouse since, and I can’t imagine ever being without a cat. I won’t stop missing Trinity, but I’m so glad we invited playful, affectionate (and mouse deterring) Kali into our house.

4. Which of your fictional characters Burns Brightest in your mind and why?

It’s a real toss up between Ward and Celia. I love being in Ward’s head because he really cares about doing the right thing. It’s so important to him and he’ll make these decisions that someone else would think were crazy in order to do the right thing. But on the other hand, Celia has the grittiness and practicality that I love. There’s the right thing, and then there’s the right thing that won’t kill you. Although, in truth, it’s really the two of them together that I love.

Connect with Melanie: Facebook / Twitter @melaniecard / Goodreads / MelanieCard.com