Interview with Anna Smith, Spark the Queen of Grimdark
Hey Anna, thank you so, so much for doing this interview. I’m going to try to leave my star-stricken fan side at the door, but before I do, I have to say that you’re a massive inspiration and easily on my list of favorite authors.
Oh, thank you so much! And can I say in return – your book For a Few Days more was great, and it was an amazing honour to see Marith achieve apotheosis in it.
Between Queen of Grimdark, Empress of Fabulous Prose, Wearer of Insane Shoes, and your myriad of other titles, do you have a favorite?
Queen of grimdark will always be my favourite, I think. It’s on the front of one of my books and everything. But I saw Mike Fletcher and myself described as ‘Titans of Grimdark’ recently. Which was supremely cool.
I think I’ll do a Marith and go for ALL THE TITLES!
How’s life been since the release of In the Shadow of Their Dying? Missing Fletcher yet?
I’ve just signed ten times a hundred signature sheets for a special edition of In the Shadow of Their Dying, all of them previously signed by Fletcher. I’ve literally seen his name a thousand times recently. If I’m very tired his name dances before my eyes.
So no, not missing him yet.
Apart from that, life’s been amazing. This interview is hideously late because I’ve been hurriedly writing an official 2000AD Judge Anderson novel and then jetting off to WorldCon Glasgow where I hung out with Joe Abercrombie, Scott Lynch, Gareth Hanrahan, Anna Stephens and many many other old and new friends, and all my books sold out. Then it was straight off to Somerset for a family holiday walking in the footsteps of Coleridge, Shelley and Ada Lovelace and soaking up inspiration for my next book. Ancient oakwoods tumbling into rocky combes that fall away into the grey of the sea, a genuine church in the green accessible only on foot along a steep pathway and dating back to the earliest days of English Christianity and the haunt of lepers, mystics and poets. Don’t be surprised to see something very similar turn up in the third book in the Making of This World Ruined series. I suggested a family holiday to North Somerset to walk the landscape I needed for the book.
During your interview with Dr. John Mauro, you mentioned that you had coffee with Steven Erikson. Since both of you are on my personal Mt. Rushmore of authors, I’m dying to know what was discussed!
Oh, thank you again! Steven Erikson is one of my favourite authors, I stalked him around WorldCon Dublin and was then introduced to him by his editor with the words ‘this is Anna Smith Spark, she’s brilliant’. That was a very good day … We mostly talked about archaeology and history, which we’ve both interested in. I had an amazing day out with Steven at World eaFantasyCon LA as well, we went to the La Brea Tar Pits - https://tarpits.org/ - then ate burgers and shakes in the LA sunshine. I’ve wanted to visit La Brea since I was tiny, it’s fascinated me my whole life. We saw skeletons of mammoths, cave lions, dire wolves … I also recommended he read M John Harrison’s Viriconium, which to me is the greatest work of fantasy ever written.
The author I would love to meet R Scott Bakker. I’ve sent a signed book to him, but not met him. Maybe one day…
Other than writing, what fills your time?
Domestic drudgery! I have two children [see question below].
If the question is what do I enjoy doing apart from writing, I read, I go out for walks, and I visit museums and sites of historical interest like stately homes and ancient monuments. I think I probably enjoy reading, walking and writing in that order. It’s all bound up together, though. I read and steal everything I can for my own writing, I walk through woods / shops / carparks and try to put the experience of everything around me into words, I visit historical places and view objects in museums then write about them, everything I read from restaurant reviews to historical non-fiction to literature is research for my prose or my world building. And my writing driven by an urgent desperate need to put everything I see and hear and feel into words… In the end, I live hoping that the magic and beauty will be real for me, and I walk, read, write to make it real.
I had to put down A Sword of Bronze and Ashes more than once because I found it so claustrophobic, most of which came down to the neediness of the children. Was that something you were trying to achieve or a natural byproduct of writing from a mother’s POV?
That is exactly what I wanted the book to achieve! Thank you! A book that affects someone to that degree is everything to me!
It wasn’t ‘intended’ – just what I was writing. The book is heavily based on my life during the Covid lockdowns. I went in four days from ‘the paperback of the concluding part of my hugely critically acclaimed epic grimdark fantasy trilogy has been published and a review has called it a masterwork’ to ‘I’m locked in the house with two extremely high needs primary school age children trying to teach two different maths classes at the same time while also do my day job and also if my mum gets this disease she’ll probably die’. Everything Lidae feels about life being taken away from her, about her world becoming smaller and smaller, her rage and her love and her bitterness, her fear for the future … that is from my life. I think it is true for many primary carers – my children are the greatest joy and the greatest love, my life would be utterly empty without them, but the sense of being trapped, of the sheer claustrophobia of life when you have to put yourself second always – there is no more important or rewarding work in the world than keeping those you love safe and happy – and yet … I would sacrifice everything for my children and certainly never expect anything in return – and yet …
As I was finishing up The House of Sacrifice, the daily lives of the common soldiers and civilians caught up in Marith’s wars became more and more important and interesting to me (see the character of Lenae, and Tobias back with his squad at the end of the book focussed on his comrades and their lives not the grand high politics of wars and thrones). Mothers in epic fantasy tend to either die early on to leave our hero alone in the world, or be hugely powerful and often very negative figures, queens playing games of high stakes for their children or hating their children for not being strong enough – and in both cases, certainly not involved in much actual parenting. I mean, House of the Dragon is supposedly all about mothers and their sons, but the actuality of being the primary caregiver is completely absent because everyone has servants to do the messy daily life stuff. I hinted at the reality of parenthood when writing about Marith’s relationship with his family (imagine having this astonishing gifted and talented and terrifying and utterly fucked up child as your step-son; it would be pretty complicated to live with all that in your life every day….) A Woman of the Sword felt like the natural progression of those thoughts.
What are you reading right now?
I’m about to start Shauna Lawless’ The Land of the Living and the Dead, the final volume of her Gael Song trilogy set in medieval Ireland. I loved the first two books in the series and have been lucky enough to be sent advanced copies of all three books. Lyrically written historical fantasy novels set in the wild landscape of medieval Ireland, soaked in the Irish sagas and Celtic myth and folklore, featuring a full cast of warriors, Vikings, queens and magicians … I sort of feel Shauna wrote them for me personally.
What was the first book you tried to write? When was it?
Ah ha! People will hate me for saying this, but, um, the first book I ever wrote as an adult was The Court of Broken Knives. Seriously. I used to play by telling myself stories based on the myths and legends I loved; as soon as I learned to write I wrote all the time, always fantasy or historical stories; as a teenager I wrote a lot of very high art comic book scripts. Then I had a lot of horrible mental health issues and stopped writing completely as an adult. Finally, several years of a dull office job that suggested I was vaguely capable of adulting, two children and an autism diagnosis later, I suddenly started writing and a year later I had the first draft of The Court of Broken Knives written.
So, to anyone reading this who wants to write but has some weird fear or block – JUST WRITE! Write for yourself, don’t think about whether it’s good or not, write like no one is reading (they’re not at this point!), enjoy writing like you might enjoying singing at the top of your voice in the shower or dancing at your best friend’s wedding when you’re crazy happy, hammered and really don’t care that you look like a three-legged moose on roller skates… JUST WRITE for the sheer joy of writing your personal version of the Battle of Helm’s Deep that you’ve always felt would be greatly improved by the addition of a party of kick-ass vampire pirates, and see what happens. Literally the worst thing that can happen is that you enjoy writing it then file it away in a drawer and hope no ever sees it. Which really isn’t that bad an ending in the grand scheme of things.
During the interview with Spells and Spaceships, you made it seem like you were pretty clearly on the “Gardner” side of “Architect v.s. Gardner” - did you have any major issues sprout up with the metaphorical flowers and vines that come with that style?
All the time and none of the time, if that makes any sense. For those who don’t know, ‘Architect v Gardener’ is ‘plotter v pantser’ in more sophisticated literary garb. The architect designs a book from beginning to end, the gardener shapes a book as it grows. I am very much a gardener, I see my books as entities outside of me that I am trying to put down in words – very like trying to draw a still life of a garden, in fact. The rage and fury at myself when I can’t get the colour of a flower or the quality of the light as it is and should be. The joy when I do get it exactly right. And the wonder when I discover something I didn’t know, hadn’t seen. I suppose I see my books in my head like a landscape or a garden that I’m walking through. At first it’s a mystery to me, a new place to explore that I’ve never seen before. Then I can see the whole vista, then slowly the details of the landscape and its secrets are revealed. I often realise I’ve taken a wrong turning and got lost, or yes, something gets totally out of control or indeed withers and dies horribly, and I have to deal with it. But that’s – kind of – part of the joy. (Actually it’s so not, it’s as enraging and depressing as it is for anyone when you get completely lost out walking and have to be tracked down by mountain rescue, or when your entire year’s vegetable crop is destroyed by a freak hailstorm, and I do it to myself again and again and again like the masochist I am).
It's a bloody exhausting way to write.
What’s next for Anna Smith Spark?
I’m about to start editing the second book in the Making of This World Ruined trilogy, the follow up to A Sword of Bronze and Ashes. I can’t reveal even the title yet – but I gave a sneak peak reading of an extract at my table talk at WorldCon and it seemed to go down well.
As soon as I finish this interview, I’m also starting to write book three of the series. And I have another vast world and story building in my head, back to a more epic style with multiple points of view and massive set piece battles, but less bleak than Empires of Dust. I know I’m good at massive set-piece grimdark battles and am rather longing to get back to writing them.
Any last little thing you want to tell the people reading this interview? Words of advice, general ill tidings, how you think a fight between Marith and Darth Vader would go, etc?
Marith would totally take Darth Vader! The whole possibly being actually invulnerable thing being something of a benefit. But if we’re taking IP mash-ups, I will repeat my plea for someone to write Marith/Jorge Ancrath fan fic (yeah, yeah, Marith kind of is Jorge Ancrath fan fic, why do you think I was so thrilled to get the same agent?). Those I’ve suggested the idea to seemed to think it would only add to the general happiness of the world.
Jorge would obviously be the top btw. Not that I’ve thought about this at some length.
I think I covered words of advice above. So all I really have left to say is beg people to by my books, and your book, and all the people I’ve named dropped in this interview’s books. And to thank you interviewing me.
Anna Smith Spark lives in London, UK. She loves grimdark and epic fantasy and historical military fiction. Anna has a BA in Classics, an MA in history and a PhD in English Literature. She has previously been published in the Fortean Times and the poetry website www.greatworks.org.uk. Previous jobs include petty bureaucrat, English teacher and fetish model.
Anna's favourite authors and key influences are R. Scott Bakker, Steve Erikson, M. John Harrison, Ursula Le Guin, Mary Stewart and Mary Renault. She spent several years as an obsessive D&D player. She can often be spotted at sff conventions wearing very unusual shoes.
