Guest Author - Teal Ceagh (aka Tracy Cooper-Posey)

Today it is my pleasure to welcome Tracy Cooper-Posey to SciFiGuy. Tracy writes as Teal Ceagh and has prepared a terrific post on urban fantasy world-building for you as part of her blog tour for her urban fantasy romance Carson's Night which released at the beginning of this month.

We have an excerpt of the novella for you after the post and Tracy is also giving away a copy of her erotic paranormal romance Eva's Last Dance to a commenter. Details on the giveaway are at the end of the post. Tracy will drop in to chat so the floor is open to commenters. Tracy also asks a question in her post that she is curious to hear your opinion on.

To find out more about Teal Ceagh visit: Website | Blog | Books | Newsletter | Facebook | Articles | Events | Email

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The Great Revelation -- It’s Not As Simple As Showing Us Your Fangs

I love urban fantasy and I especially love the softer urban fantasies – urban fantasy romances, and erotic urban fantasy romances. But I cut my reading teeth on hard science fiction, especially the classic hard core stuff: Isaac Asimov and Robert Heinlein are still favourites of mine and I’ll mix them up with China Miéville, Lora Leigh and when I come up for air, John Wyndham, Susan Cooper, Ben Bova... My reading diet is omnivorous, unlike the real calories I consume. Because of that, my world-building is probably more complex and conceptualized than the world actually needs for the sake of the story. But I do love world-building.

One of the most fascinating characters from my favourite Stephen King novel, The Stand, was the sociology professor, Glenn Bateman, who could predict the tides and movements of a society based on the actions and reactions of a group of people to stimulus and response. It was fascinating, and I’ve never forgotten that society itself is a character in my own novels.

Society is also a character in urban fantasy novels. It must be given recognition – it’s included in the genre name (“urban”) and is an expected part of the reader’s experience.

So I’m always interested to see how other authors handle the great revelation question. Are the fantasy creatures in their world known or not known to the general human population?

There’s some profound implications on the storyworld, depending on which way the author jumps.

It’s not as simple as saying it’s all secret, so it’s just today’s contemporary world with vampires in disguise. That seems like an easy way out, but it’s really not. If it really is just one big conspiracy, how has the secret been kept all this time? That takes an enormous amount of ruthlessness, money and hidden communications. I actually speak from a teeny amount of experience here. I spent six months maintaining a secret pen name before I stepped out of the closet as Teal Ceagh (Tracy Cooper-Posey is my real name), and the amount of energy, time, money and paperwork that took is mind-numbing. For a whole planetful of undead to maintain such an elaborate shield of falsehood, the complexity spirals into the stratosphere. How ruthless do your fantasy creatures become? It’s simply not possible for humans to go year after year without tripping over some evidence of otherworld creatures sooner or later. What do the creatures do with those humans then? The author has to make these decisions before word one is written of the story, and the more decisions the author makes, the more complex the world becomes, the more layered and, often, the more darker the story.

I like to use this “we’re still a secret” alternative in my stories. It’s not used as often as the “we’re out” option, which means there’s lots of variations still yet to be explored. The one drawback to this, of course, is that any human characters in the story must find out about the fantasy creatures and live to tell the tale, plus deal psychologically with the reality of the fantasy creatures as swiftly as possible while not slowing down the pacing of the story too much, either. But it can be done, and it’s often worth the challenge just to provide a slightly different story world to the often used “we’re out” scenario.

The other alternative, of course, is that the vampires, werewolves, fae, witches, goblins, ghosts, gremlins, or other creatures who inhabit the author’s urban fantasy have already “come out” into human view, and co-habit the world, jostling the city streets along with humans. There has already been a great revelation of some sort. Harris, Hamilton, Butcher, and other urban fantasy masters all use this alternative for their worlds and it makes for great variety and interest in world building, because it opens up the floor to some wild future-world type possibilities, while still keeping the story in a contemporary setting: What rights to the fantasy creatures have? What sort of culture acceptance do the humans give the fantasy creatures, regardless of legal rights? What sort of biological cross-breeding is possible? What sort of political activist groups would start up as a result of these species coming out? What sort of hate groups? What sort of crimes would become more frequent? How would society change as a result?

Depending on how long ago the fantasy species came out, the changes that are possible could change the urban landscape in ways that could render it almost unrecognizable to what we think of our cities today.

This is where I think the Glenn Batemans of the world would have the most fun, figuring out the ramifications of introducing a new species amongs the human population, sitting back and watching it mingle and seeing if what they predicted would happen actually takes place.

There are variations to both “secret” and “out” options. Some species may have come out, and some remain hidden – Harris did this for some of her creatures throughout the early parts of her Sookie Stackhouse books. The timing of the revelation that has an impact on the structure of the storyworld when the story takes place.

If the author is worth their paycheque at all, then they won’t wing this part of their world-building, and they won’t settle for the easy or cliched answers – or I always hope they haven’t when I pick up a new world and a new author.

What’s your preference? 

Secret? or Out?

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Carson’s Night by Teal Ceagh
It’s August 1977 in New York City and the weird sculptor Moss Alex Meinhardt lies dead at the foot of an ugly gargoyle he’s half-completed. Natalia Grey’s demon hunter father is also dead, and his new partner, the astonishingly sexy Carson Connors, can’t remember how it happened.

Carson isn’t sure what role he has played in Natalia’s father’s death, but after one look at Natalia, he does know that guilty or not, he’s doomed.

Natalia must take up her father’s sword and her heritage as a demon hunter and figure out what happened this night, for the gargoyles Meinhardt carved have life they should not have without the help of dark forces she and Carson must defeat—once the gargoyles have risen, of course. But the night is hours away yet…

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Excerpt

“What did you murmur to her just then?” Carson demanded, moving around the couch.
Sherwood looked up, his eyes narrowing. “Ah, you noticed.”
“I don’t have vampire hearing but for a human I hear better than most. You told her something, probably about me.”
“A good assumption, as you are the only one in the room we couldn’t speak freely in front of.” Sherwood strung his fingers together and let them hang between his knees. He looked relaxed and comfortable on the low chair.
Carson didn’t let that fool him. He kept his guard up and the couch between them. “We’re not going back to destroy the gargoyles while they’re in their stone sleep?”
Sherwood shook his head. “It would seem like a natural move, especially as we know where they’re nesting—a rare advantage with gargoyles. But there’s a powerful demon out there guarding them. Azazel. He’s hunting me because he knows I will kill him the moment I can re-gather my resources. All I have is Tally, who is untried.” Sherwood’s gaze flickered to the still form on the couch and back up to Carson. “No offence.”
“The gargoyles will abandon the nest tonight. You know that.”
“You’re not the only one with experience hunting gargoyles, Connors. We’ll find them again. When we’re stronger.”
“So we hide instead?”
“We regroup,” Sherwood amended. “This apartment has been specifically warded against Azazel. He cannot enter without invitation.”
“You’re a witch too?”
“I have friends.”
“And money. Those sorts of wards don’t come cheap.”
“No, they don’t,” Sherwood agreed. He sat unmoved, staring at Carson.
“We regroup until when?”
“I would prefer than Damian be on his feet again. He is a good right hand to have in a fight.”
“He’s a hunter?”
“A Spartan,” Sherwood amended.
Carson considered that. The Spartans were considered one of the most effective foot soldiers in history. Sherwood wasn’t indulging his personal whims by delaying long enough for Damian to recover. With a short sword and a long knife, Damian would be a deadly fighting force. Find a way to give him a shield as well and very little would stop him. Only being caught unguarded and weaponless by a handful of gargoyles had slowed him down tonight. Carson had a feeling neither vampire would be caught flatfooted again.

To buy Carson’s Night, click here.

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Nearly 100 years after their last dance together, Eva’s long lost love, Edward makes contact again. Eva—petite, blonde, blue-eyed, lonely and a vampire now—can’t resist falling into his arm and under his erotic spell. She’ll do anything he asks of her now.

Until the spell is rudely interrupted by human demon hunter, Ryan Jefferson, who is on the trail of an incubus. He sets out to seduce Eva properly in a searing night of dance and passion—and attempts to avert the disaster that hovers over the delicate, beguiling creature.

GIVEAWAY GUIDELINES:

1. A copy of Eva's Last Dance to giveaway courtesy of Tracy Cooper-Posey, name to be drawn randomly.
2. Leave a comment or question for Tracy. Tell us your preference for whether supernatural creatures in urban fantasy world-building should be secret or out in the open.
3. Open internationally.
4. Leave a way to notify you if you should win.
5. Blog, tweet, post on Facebook or other social network sites for an extra entry. Leave a comment here to let me know.
6. Giveaway open until Midnight, April 20, 2010 EDT.