"Someone weaker," he says, "and here in the capitol instead of in the frozen north." Then he sits forward on his throne and surprises me, saying: "Ward's blood was weak. Find me someone in whom the blood is concentrated, someone inbred. When Ward's sister and his cousin marry in the first book, you established that, in this world, first cousins do marry. You put it in, you owe me."

So the king wants weak prey, the product of two Hurogs. Ward's father and grandfather slept around a lot, I mutter unwillingly.

"Ah," he says. "Lovely. And they were both here, in my capitol. I sense a victim near at hand. Find me a young boy (because I'm really, really scary around young boys) the son of Ward's father and someone else of Hurog blood."

"Okay," I said meekly and added another character to a book that was already pretty heavily populated.

I've come to believe that if the book is falling neatly into my original plans for it, I don't have the characters right yet.

Crescent Blues: Your books often have a very romantic feel and place a great deal of emphasis on relationships. How do you keep the romance elements from overwhelming the fantasy and vice versa?

Patricia Briggs: When writing a genre book, I believe it is important to write a book that could not have been written better in some other genre. The genre has to be central to the plot of the book. When I write fantasy, the fantastic elements -- not the romance (or the mystery or spy elements) -- ultimately drive the plot.

Romance, to me is a part of character development. It adds drama, helps flesh out characters and generally acts as a catalyst. I use romance extensively in my novels because it is an integral part of the interaction between people. The fantasy elements, though, are always critical to the plot and to the resolution of the story. If you take the romantic elements out of my stories (even The Hob's Bargain or Steal the Dragon where romance plays a major part), they would still be stories -- but not if you take away the magic.

Crescent Blues: How have other genres influenced your fantasy?

Patricia Briggs: When I'm setting out to write a book, I try not to write the same book over and over again. One of the ways that I do this is to pick out a new genre to throw in. For example Masques had elements of the spy genre while When Demons Walk had bits of mystery and horror thrown in. I usually toss in a dash of political intrigue and romance to sweeten the pot. One of the things that I like best about fantasy is that it's one of the few genres deep enough for this kind of tomfoolery.

Crescent Blues: What are you reading now?

Crescent Blues: What are you working on now?

Crescent Blues: Although you only started publishing within the past ten years, the prices your out of print titles fetch on Amazon, Ebay and Half.com are pretty staggering. (An average of $30 up to $85 for some items.) To what do you attribute this interest in your back list?

Patricia Briggs: The prices are extremely flattering. I've always tried to write a good book, and the prices my out of print books are going for tells me that at least some readers like them. But whenever I start to get a swelled head, I go onto Amazon and read what my critics have to say [grins]. The reviews that really hurt are the ones I agree with.

My first book fell off the turnip truck. My husband likes to call it a "limited edition." It was out of print almost before the second book, Steal the Dragon was published. Steal the Dragon had significantly better sales, but it was quite a while between it and When Demons Walk due to Masques' low numbers and Ace changing editors. By the time When Demons Walk came out, Steal the Dragon was out of print. When Demons Walk also sold pretty well (by my standards anyway), and The Hob's Bargain made it to the Locus bestseller list. People who'd read The Hob's Bargain and When Demons Walk started looking for the other books about the same time that the Internet became the place to go to look for out of print titles. The rarity of Masques drove the price of it up to around $30. Since that one was more expensive, booksellers began to ask for more money for Steal the Dragon, too. After that, I think, it was just a snowball effect.

Sometimes I worry that someone who pays $50-$100 for Masques (that means they paid as much as 50 cents a page) will feel cheated. But I haven't got any hate mail about it yet.

Crescent Blues: Any chance that some of those books will be reprinted soon?

Patricia Briggs: Soon is a relative term in publishing! Don't look for reprints in the next six months or so. I haven't been actively looking for new homes for my out of print titles, but Ace is issuing reprints of The Hob's Bargain and Dragon Bones so there's a possibility that they'll reconsider the older books.

Crescent Blues: How important do you feel your covers have been in attracting potential readers to your books?

Patricia Briggs: Stephen King could sell a book that had nothing but his name on it. The rest of us twitch in anxiety until we see what the art director and artist have come up with.

A good cover lets a person looking at a bookshelf from two or three feet away know what kind of a book it is. If it is a very good cover it does more than just indicate the genre. Is this a funny book? Is it an adventure? Is it a romantic fantasy or high fantasy? A good cover should appeal to a person who wants to read the kind of book. It's advertising. I want every shopper who goes to a bookstore looking for my kind of fantasy to pick up my book.

I've been very fortunate so far, for which I thank my editors, the art department and the various artists who've done my covers.

Crescent Blues: Do you have any particular writing rituals?

Patricia Briggs: First, I wait until everyone else has gone to work or school. I start my MP3 playlist of music. I own all the CD's, of course, but the MP3 version allows me to mix the songs so I don't get tired of my favorites. Most of the music is folk or filk (music with sf/fantasy themes) though I have a couple of opera singers I throw in the batch. I don't play anything too modern, because I use the music to drown out the real world. Finally I light a scented candle or two -- then I'm ready to work.

Patricia Briggs: Don't expect anything to happen fast. Editors take months to buy books, and then it can take 12 to 18 months to see print. Don't watch the mailbox.

Go to science fiction conventions and talk to the pros. There is a tradition in the world of speculative (sf, fantasy and horror) fiction in which the old pros help the people who are trying to get into the game. The idea is that authors are not in competition with each other. Just think about how many new fantasy readers J.K. Rowling has created. What do they do while they are waiting for the next Harry Potter book? They buy other fantasy books.

Crescent Blues: Anything you'd like to add (soapboxes provided free of charge)?

No soapboxes, I save them for my books where I can pad the ground a bit in case I fall off. I would like to thank you for the opportunity to chat a bit about writing and books with you here at Crescent Blues.

Click here to learn more about Patricia Briggs.

Jean Marie Ward