| I recently had a chance to finish reading an anthology from award winning author, Pip Ballantine. Originally, I discovered her work through the excellent steampunk series, The Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences, which she authors with her husband, Tee Morris. Expanding into more of her catalog, I’ve come to find myself a true fan of Pip’s darker work. We recently sat down to ask her about her short story anthology, Creative Indulgences. nK: Welcome. Can you tell our readers about Creative Indulgences? What was the original inspiration for the stories? PB: I have been known for my steampunk and fantasy novels for a decade, but I have found writing short stories more of a challenge. So to get better at them, I determined to write more. Writing is something you need to practice to get better. Also I wanted to try genres I hadn’t ventured into before. So to drive myself forward on both of these, I set up a Patreon. This brought an element of surprise, as I asked patrons to pick which genre, and other things like setting or protagonist. It was really fun to interact with my readers like this—quite unique in my career so far. It was a surprise every month what I worked on, and I enjoyed the challenge of that. nK: I recognize one of the characters early on from the Sea King’s Daughters series. Can you tell our readers about that project? PB: The Sea King’s Daughters was another fun project between myself and a bunch of other authors (Katee Roberts, Stacia Kelly, Asa Marie Bradley, PJ Schnyder, and Lauren Harris). It was a shared world, urban anthology, with mermaids, where we all wrote a novella. It was fascinating to see how many different ways different authors create stories when given the same building blocks. Everyone wrote a story set in a different location, and with a different Daughter. It was another great experiment that I really enjoyed. nK: The initial story, Last/First, is a super futuristic story that gets almost Lovecraftian. You include a non-binary character in that story (complete with them/they pronouns). Was that an important character to include for you as an author? PB: I think it is important to include a full range of human and alien types of people in all your stories. I also want to make sure the aliens are relatable in some way. I love how earnest this character is, and they care about their captain. nK: Same story, how did you decide on the name for 108el20k and how do you pronounce that? PB: That’s always the horrible thing when you make up names… especially when you layer turn around and have to pronounce them for the audiobook! I just sounded out the letters. It was a good way to get across the difference in the alien, I think… even if it gave me a bother! nK: Into the Park is probably my favorite story. It has such a Jeff Strand/Andrew Mayhem feel to it. The characters introduced in the beginning really resonate with today’s current teens. Was there a particular person in your life who inspired them? PB: I think that story is inspired by my past as a consumer of teenage horror movies. As soon as you see a bunch of privileged kids in a car in the dark going out on a dare, you just know something bad is going to happen. I hope the teens I know are too smart to do any such thing. I loved twisting the tropes on that one, and including the older ladies was another way to do that. I am getting more and more enjoyment out of including older characters in my novels. nK: You’ve written plenty of fantasy over the years. In Hatching, you write as a dragon.What inspired that perspective? PB: I’ve always wanted to write something with dragons in it. What fantasy writer doesn’t want to? I got a chance to play with them a little in the Shifted World Series but never really go inside their heads. Hatchling was a chance to do that, and think examine what kind of society dragons might have. nK: Mystery at the La Salle is such great noir. I really love the character design of Ida Allen. What influenced that character? PB: That story is a spin off from my husband Tee Morris’ Billibub Badding’s series. I didn’t steal any of his characters, but it is definitely in the same world. I love noir, and again it wasn’t something I had an opportunity to write before. The 1920s is also one of my favorite historic time periods. nK: This collection is so diverse. Is world building something that comes to you naturally or do you tend to really invest in research? PB: It was a strange thing doing all of these short stories. Some seemed to come out so naturally—strangely the horror ones were the easiest. With a short story, you don’t have a whole lot of time for world building, but you do get a bit of a snippet. It is however moulded around the story you are creating, so you can’t afford to go off on too many tangents. You also have limited time to set the scene, so picking out a few evocative details to create the image you want in the readers mind. nK: What projects do you have in the works and where can our readers find you? PB: Right now Tee and I are working on the third book of the Verity Fitzroy and the Ministry Seven, The Secret of the Monkey God. It’s a YA novel, with lots of adventure, fun and gadgets in it. Once that is done, I have another project set in the early nineteenth century in England, but one that has kept its ancient forests. This forest is full of magic. I’m having a lot of fun playing with that idea. It’s still in its early stages, so I am still in the process of falling in love with it. We’ll have to see what it becomes, but that is what I love about writing- discovering the magic and putting it on the page. |
