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makingofstories · 1 year

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Tamsyn Muir interview about TLT in Celsius 232 (2022)

This post is a transcribe of an interview/talk made to Tamsyn Muir during the Celsius 232, a multimedia festival about fantasy, scifi and horror genres celebrated in Avilés, a city in the North of Spain. The interview was about her saga The Locked Tomb. In this interview Tamsyn Muir talked about topics such as how the trilogy turned into a tetralogy, fanfiction, her favourite cliche and translations. She also answered fandom questions from the public.

Click on Keep reading to read the whole interview!

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Thanks to Comic Astur for recording the interview. They have another interviews during Celsius 232 in their channel, both to Spanish and non-Spanish authors. So check it out!

I want to share this interview and to transcribe it so everybody can enjoy it. Also, although I was in the festival, I couldn't go to this talk. So I'm glad that it was recorded because I found it interesting.

A lot of people came to the event cosplayed as Gideon, Harrow and other characters. Here is a photo with all of them!

This interview was made in July 2022, so the books discussed are mainly Gideon The Ninth and Harrow The Ninth.

In the scenario there were three people, as you can see in the video. Tamsyn Muir (center, author of The Locked Tomb), Gabriella Campbell (left, interviewer (and author of books such as Pequeños restos de magia, El día del dragón...)) and Diego García (right, interpreter). Gabriella did the questions while Diego translated everything to Tamsyn and then to the public.

Now that everything is clear, let's start!

Interviewer: Well, I'm going to start very seriously. I think that I don't need to introduce to you who Tamsyn Muir is. You also now Diego a lot. *laughs* Before anything else, I'm going to be very formal and I'll start by reading a bit of Tamsyn Muir's biography from Wikipedia. *everybody laughs* So I'll need to use my glasses.

*Gabriella, the interviewer, takes some aviator sunglasses that were on the table and she puts them on, the glasses really look like Gideon's so everybody started laughing and clapping. Tamsyn Muir nods and does a thumbs up 👍 After this joke, Gabriella takes the glasses of and puts on her regular glasses to read*

Interviewer: Tamsyn Muir is a New Zealand author of fantasy, science fiction and horror. She's been nominated for a lot of prizes and her first novel was published in 2019. I think that you may know what's its tittle... *everybody laughs* She was born in Australia in 1985 and she moved to New Zealand when she was five years old.* Now she works as a teacher in Oxford.

*in Wikipedia it says that she moved to New Zealand when she was nine months old, but in the same Wikipedia article in Spanish it says five years old. So yeah, someone can confirm which is correct? hahaha

The Deepwater Bride was published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction in 2015, was nominated for the Nebula Award for Best Novelette, the World Fantasy Award—Short Fiction, the Eugie Award and the Shirley Jackson Award. Amazing. Then it came Gideon. It's the first book of The Locked Tomb trilogy. It was pulished in 2019. It won the third place in the Goodreads Choice Awards for best science fiction in 2019. Charles Stross describes it as: "Lesbian necromancers explore a haunted gothic palace in space!" *everybody starts clapping*

What the Wikipedia doesn't say is that this woman is her translators' terror. *everybody laughs* She does a lot of bad jokes and has a lot of memes. She also made me lose a whole week of productivity because I slept several nights at 5AM to finish a book.

My first question, which is something that I think that everybody is interested in a bit, the biggest and most important question of all... is... Who is Gideon Nav's favourite p*rn model?

Tamsyn Muir: There are so many... *everybody laughs* How can she pick?

Interviewer: There must be a favourite.

Tamsyn Muir: No, no, [she has a] special place in the heart for a lot of them. She's ready, she's waiting available.

Interviewer: Now a more serious question. I'm not saying that this wasn't a serious question. Tamsyn has talked before about this, but everybody asks what happened with this trilogy with four books. She has made to us a Douglas Adams? What happened with Nona? Why Nona?

Tamsyn Muir: Why not? It wasn't meant to be this way, I'm sorry. There were going to be three books, and it was going to be over this year. But my editor asked me: "How is Alecto going? Are you nearly finished?" And I said: "I've finished the first act." I could see his face, it was on camera. He was very sad. And he said: "Okay, that's fine. How long is the first act?". And I said that it's not that long, 140,000 words. And he said: "The first act?? How many acts are there going to be?". I said four. He said: "We can't publish that, it would kill people". So we took out the first act and that's where Nona comes from. And it is her story, it is the story of one girl and I think I'm ok with it now. I'm happy with having and extra book. It is it's own thing. Maybe I'm sorry that we don't actually get to have that very very very big book that I intended. But Alecto will be done and will not be small.

Interviewer: One thing that I found while doing an exhaustive investigation on the internet is that Tamsyn Muir has written fanfiction. I think that it can be noticed in Gideon [The Ninth] and Harrow [The Ninth], right? There's a lot of incredible details [that can be related to fanfiction]. A lot of these details are memes and other cultural references. Many have come from Tumblr and other social media, including fanfictions. All these tropes and resources are present in fanfiction, such as the cafeteria. You may recognize that the moment in the cafeteria is a common resource in classic fanfiction. Social roles inversions too. There are a lot of details like these. My question is, which is your favourite cliche?

Tamsyn Muir: I thought it couldn't get any harder after who is Gideon's favourite p*rn actor. There are so many fanfiction cliches that I love. And I think that my favourite ever, and this is very cliche of me, is probably arranged marriage. I have to say that I got to do a little bit of this when I was writing Nona. You won't find it in Nona. This is because my editor got angry at me. I stopped writing [the book] to write an alternative universe so I could prove something could happen. I only got 30,000 words into it. Not that long. And then I had to stop. But I wanted to get it and maybe it will be out there some day. Not that my editor has anything to say about it. But arranged marriage is definitely my favourite ever cliche. It's a good one.

Also, there is only one bed.

Interviewer: Another question, this is a fast one because I'm personally curious. Do you still do fan fiction secretly? And about what show, book or cultural product?

Tamsyn Muir: I don't do it anymore. I've retired. I don't have time! I would love to. Oh, what fanfic would I write? I think I would embarrass my agent-mate Martha Wells and write Murderbot fanfiction.. So that is why is good I have retired.

Interviewer: Another thing that I found in my great and exhaustive investigation is that some people found Gideon and Harrow's relationship and described it as an intimate friendship. You know where I'm going, right? Some people described it even as a relationship between sisters. *everybody laughs* So I wanted to ask Tamsyn. I don't know, but I thought, with my personal bias, that maybe there is something romantic between them.

Tamsyn Muir: I have two sisters. If I behaved the way that Gideon and Harrow do to each other with my sisters I would be arrested.

Interviewer: Talking about this, we don't see in Gideon [The Ninth] and Harrow [The Ninth] any kind of explicit erotic scenes. But I, and some people may too, see that you make repulsive things strangely sensual and sexual. I don't want to do spoilers about Harrow The Ninth, but in one scene happens a reconstruction of an arm. And I found it deeply sexual. I just wanted to know if this was done on purpose.

Tamsyn Muir: I didn't do it on purpose, but after I wrote the scene and read it back to myself I thought: "Huummmmm??". The books aren't very sexual, but for Harrow [this moment] is the closest in some ways that she gets, so you should all worry about the future.

Interviewer: Another thing that we all may be in agreement is that Tamsyn's world is really complex. I think that you need a map just to follow every character. I was really lost in the beggining, when they're in that kind of battle royale for the keys. All those houses, characters and personalities... As a reader you may feel overwhelmed. How do you work with this world? Do you have your own encyclopedia? Is everything in your head? How do you maintain coherence [throughtout the story]?

Tamsyn Muir: [I'm] Very optimistic. Specially with complicated things like in the first book, it's very important to have knowledge of who has certain keys and unlocked certain rooms. I thought that I could keep it on my head. I ended up with a very complicated Excel spreadsheet. In every single book I say to myself: "This will be the one when I write down in detail everything that's happening, everything that goes on. I will write notes for myself". And in every book I hate myself because I never do this. It is luck, it is sometimes little bits of paper all over my house. And it's definitely my copy editor, who I think must be the most exhausted person in the world.

Interviewer: Going back to the memes and the references... I remember reading Gideon [The Ninth] and Harrow [The Ninth] without problems and then starting to search through the internet. I found a lot of memes [that I didn't get on my first read]. Between this and words about anatomy that I had to search on the dictionary, I talked with David Tejera (book translator of The Locked Tomb to Spanish), who's right there on the first row. Come on, give him an applause! *everybody applauses* I looked at how he translated stuff that I didn't know how could be translated. Do you have any kind of connection with your translators? Do they ask you about a lot of stuff? Do they insult you?

Tamsyn Muir: I know I'm going to say this wrong but: Lo siento, David Tejera. I'm so sorry. All of my translators are very patient. Sometimes very confused. And David of all of them has been, I think, the most patient and not the most confused. You know, it's wonderful having close relationship with translators simply to get to see how things that are put in English translate or don't translate into different languages. I'm not a linguist. I don't speak many [languages]. So it is been wonderful getting a little bit of the languages, specially into the romance. And I always really appreciate translators who do talk to me because they don't always. And I think that, for what I heard, specially for the Spanish edition of Gideon [The Ninth], that shows the fantastic book [translation] it is. So that's all David.

Interviewer: *to the public* Do you want me to ask about the translation of a meme or do you want another question? *the public agrees to the meme question* We may be thinking about the same [meme]. I'm sorry for Diego [the translator], but I'm going to read the phrase in English, then David's translation and then I'll explain where's the difficulty. The original says: "so I'm shut in here —wallled in, really— to prevent the Nine Houses becoming none House, with left grief." The translation is: "y por eso me encierro aquí, entre cuatro paredes, para evitar que las Nueve Casas se conviertan en la Ninguna, con todo mi pesar". This has logic. When David read the original he may asked himself what was Tamsyn trying to say. None House, with left grief comes from the meme No pizza with left beef. It's and old meme from Tumblr, if I remember correctly, in which people shared photos of absurd pizza deliveries. There was one pizzeria that let you choose the ingredients that you wanted. One option was none. You could also ask for each half of the pizza with different ingredients, left and right. Somebody shared a photo of their none pizza with left beef. *while Grabriella was explaining this Tamsyn was laughing a lot* Now imagine David in this situation. It's a perfect translation, but the meme is lost. Here in Spain we couldn't get the joke if it remained. This kind of pop culture jokes are compensated with erudited references.

Tamsyn Muir: Even in Spanish it still makes me laugh! I'm sorry, I just have a very childish sense of humor. I'm so glad I can laugh at the none pizza with left beef joke in Spanish! Sorry hahaha (she didn't get that the joke wasn't really there but we'll forgive her because she was just laughing a lot 😭)

Tamsyn Muir: There is no explanation. It's so stupid. And yet, for who was saying it, he knew that nobody would get it. But he wanted to put it in it for himself, and I feel that. But I'm sorry. hahahaha

Interviewer: John does a lot of references. Is John an excuse so you can put in all the jokes that you like?

Tamsyn Muir: I have to think about this because it may be a spoiler. There are many characters who are ways of me slipping in things I like or like to say. Ianthe Tridentarius is one of them. But John has a special place in the story that perhaps you'll understand more of when Nona [The Ninth] comes out. That's a worrying sentence I just said. Perhaps you'll understand a little bit more of the jokes that John is making and why is saying them. I have an actual plot point.

Interviewer: There are just five minutes left, so we have time for one question from the public.

#1 audience question: Do you have any playlists for the characters? If you have one, share it please!

Tamsyn Muir: I can't say anything yet. I mean, I would love to see that, but...

Interviewer: I have to say that there are a lot of fan playlists. This one was quick, so one more.

#2 audience question: If Nona had a birthday cake, which would be its flavour?

Tamsyn Muir: I have to think if it's a spoiler again! Nona has no taste, so it does not matter as long as it is covered in confetti and coloured icing. It would be disgusting! Lots of colours. Icing. It doesn't matter about the cake.

Translator: *after translating* Well, we have time, so one more.

#3 audience question: I imagined God as Taika Waititi. Do you have any actors/actresses that make you think about Harrow, Gideon or Ianthe?

Tamsyn Muir: Oh, that's hard. Sometimes when I think about Harrow... I love the maori actress Erana James. But Erana James is very beautiful and I'm not sure Harrow is that beautiful.

Translator: Ok, 3 more minutes. Any more questions?

#4 audience question: I think that Gideon is a character who is really open about her sexuality. Has somebody said you anything about Gideon's openness when talking about her sexuality?

Tamsyn Muir: I don't think anyone has to thank me, because I want to thank everyone who has responded to Gideon the way I wanted her to be looked, as a butch lesbian. I just wanted to put someone in who my 17-year-old self [would like], and the way that people who responded to her is like going back in time and telling my younger self that it's ok. So thank you!

People in the public: Thank you!!

Interview: Well, one last applause!

*really long applause, everybody loves Tamsyn*

Tamsyn Muir: ¡Muchas gracias!

Although I couldn't assist to this talk, I was able to go to the signing. There was a really big queue, but I had a great time with some friends who wanted their copy signed as well.

A photo with Tamsyn Muir, with my friend @alphathedm as well who's also loving the books! Tamsyn had some of the names to sign to written in her arm. 😂

My Gideon The Ninth copy signed 🥰

This is more of a fandom post and while I like to post stuff with more advice for professionals, I'm in the TLT fandom and I wanted to post something about it.

Thank you for reading!

#making of the locked tomb #the locked tomb #tlt #tamsyn muir #author interview #fanfiction #world building #writing #fandom culture #for the writers #books #celsius 232 #celsius 2022 #gideon the ninth #harrow the ninth #nona the ninth #alecto the ninth #translation #harrow the ninth spoilers

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