#sffwrtcht

Andrew P. Mayer is author of the Society of Steam trilogy and has interviewed with us before. Active at cons like Dragon*Con, you can also find Andrew online at www.societyofsteam.com and www.facebook.com/societyofsteam and on twitter as @AndrewMayer.

SFFWRTCHT: How did The Society of Steam morph from a comic book pitch to a trilogy of novels? Why a comic book? Why, then, novels?

Andrew P. Mayer: At the time I first created the series I was purely pitching comics. I hadn’t written prose for quite a while, and I figured that comics would be my path to fame and glory. It was also a great way for me to get a lot of the ideas I had in my head onto the page without having to write them out long form.  That, by the way, is both the blessing and the curse of the comics medium. There are way more ideas out there than there are artists to draw them, and people are pitching constantly.

Once I decided to write a novel I knew that I was definitely going to use one of my existing pitches as the framework.

I’m not sure there’s any particular reason that I picked the Society of Steam except that I thought it was one that would work as prose. I also really liked the idea of delving into superheroes in a more narrative way without getting into the full on meta-deconstruction that seems to plague so many superhero novels.

In my case I wanted to bring some of the aspects of comic book storytelling that I’d picked up during my time trying to break into comics and bring them into the literary world—narrative reconstruction, if you will.

SFFWRTCHT: What key aspects had to be changed to accommodate the new medium?

Andrew P. Mayer: Originally, the comic was a much more straightforward story about a team of steampunk superheroes. It many ways the novels are telling what would have been the origin story for that comic, so I can’t really explain what I had in mind for that without giving away the ending.

Comics are visual in a way novels aren’t so you end up focusing on what looks the coolest. You need that because you don’t have nearly as much room to tell your story. You also don’t have the same kind of ability to focus on the characters from the inside out, so in the comic the Automaton was also the lead character of that series—front and center. Sarah was relegated to the background. But once there was room to focus she stepped forward and took over from the first chapter.

SFFWRTCHT: How did your work with shorter fiction influence your work on The Society of Steam?

Andrew P. Mayer: I picked something that I figured would be more effective in smaller chunks, and I had originally intended to release the book as a serial. Really it was about cutting the story up into pieces that I knew I could handle.

That’s completely changed now. I have a much better grasp of what it takes to structure a book. If anything I’m finding myself figuring out what I need to cut so I can get to the end of the story with a reasonable word count.

SFFWRTCHT: What was the most interesting or baffling thing you had to research for The Society of Steam?

Andrew P. Mayer: At first everything was baffling to some degree. I wanted to get into the world of my characters, but visiting the past is harder than visiting some place you get to completely make up—at least it was for me.

So in the beginning I needed to research everything, from the layout of Manhattan to the type of hats people wore and why. Easily the most time in the Falling Machine was spent researching what takes place in the Darby house. I really needed to stop and research almost every aspect from teeth cleaning to home heating. One thing about the Victorian era is how often you’ll discover something that you’re sure couldn’t possibly have existed at that time was commonplace, while things that seemed like they must be ancient weren’t around until the 1920s or 1940s..

SFFWRTCHT: Which has been your favorite scene to write?

Andrew P. Mayer: I really enjoy the big set pieces like the one on the Brooklyn Bridge in book one, and the theater sequence at the end of book two. They’re a bear to set up, but once they’re rolling they can be tons of fun.

SFFWRTCHT: If you could pick a character to give more “screen time” to, which would it be?

Andrew P. Mayer: Well, that would have to be Sir Dennis. He spends far more time haunting the books then actually being in them. I’m going to be giving him the chance to shine in the prequel.

SFFWRTCHT: How did you keep readers from guessing that Lord Eschaton was right under our noses the entire time?

Andrew P. Mayer: Did I? Until you mentioned it I had no idea that I’d even managed to pull that off. I just assumed everyone would guess right away, so I didn’t put a lot of effort into hiding the fact except for not stating it explicitly. Maybe that allowed me to be a little more nonchalant than I might have been if I was trying to hide something.

SFFWRTCHT: Are you planning to attend any upcoming conventions?

Andrew P. Mayer: I went to a lot of shows over the last two years, so I’ve been taking it easy for the first half 2012. I’ll definitely be going to Dragon*Con in the fall, and I might attend World Fantasy. I also really like going to Orycon, so I’m sure I’ll go back up there.

Other than that there are no big plans. Once the third book comes out I’ll hit the road a little harder over that next year. A lot of it also depends on what I get invited to.

SFFWRTCHT: Can you tell us any thing about the prequel novel?

Andrew P. Mayer: It takes place about fifteen years before the events in the series, and is going to focus on the Paragons in their heyday. My goal is to try cover things from a different angle and use that to reveal that some of the events in the trilogy aren’t quite as black and white as they appear to be.

SFFWRTCHT: If you please, tell us one thing we can look forward to in the third book.

Andrew P. Mayer: There will be a new twist on Nathaniel’s drinking problem that no one will be able to ignore.

To read our review of Hearts of Smoke and Steam, click here.

Michelle Ristuccia writes short fiction of all speculative fiction genres in between chasing her toddler from tree to tree. The shorter the work, the better, because 200 words looks very long on her cellphone and that keypad is very, very small. You can find out more about her rabid love of Star Trek, podcasting, and raising future geeklings at her blog, wakingdreamsblog.blogspot.com