NK “Nora” Jemisin has a way with worlds. Using the impossibly over-active confines of her imagination, she builds worlds so fluid and authentic that readers carelessly slip into the fabric of their seams. But she didn’t always plan to be a worldly creator. It was her love of animals that inspired her first novel. “For a while, as a child, I wanted to be a veterinarian and I was pretty hell bent on the whole idea. But after getting a cat at age nine, I realized I really didn’t know very much about animals and wasn’t sure how to go about being a vet.
“Instead, I imagined the animals had their own language and history and wrote their story as my first novel. It was the story of why dogs and cats hate each other and communicate by barking and meowing. They lost their ability to talk. In the novel I wrote of how they were once intelligent and had a language and a great civilization, but then something went wrong. The world fell apart, they blew each other up and became dogs and cats as we know them. The moral of the story was that this could happen to us, too, if we weren’t careful.
“[Later] I wrote for fun, but knew that I couldn’t make a living as a writer.” Like so many writers, Jemisin “absorbed the notion that writing wasn’t a real career. It wasn’t until 2000 when I decided I really wanted to go after my dream and began trying to get published. I had spent my whole life thinking that a) you can’t make a living as a writer and b) I don’t see a whole of black women writing fantasy and science fiction.” Jemisin loved the world of Sci-Fi and all the genre had to offer.
The journey to get published was, for Jemisin, a steep climb. “Initially, I would run into people who would read and tell me, ‘this is a great story but you should write something that is black.’ I remember thinking I should figure out what writing black means. But, that was the message I was getting hit with, to write specific subject matter only.”
Unwilling to give up or be deterred, Jemisin pushed her dream on. “Around that time I ran into the novels of Octavia Butler, a fantastic, mind blowing science fiction writer who proved to me you don’t have to give up your identity to write great science fiction.” With proof that there was a way to stay true to herself and achieve her dream, Jemisin focused her talents on creating a great fantasy story.
What is it that makes a great science fiction novel? “I think the great thing about fantasy is that it is meant to uplift. The characterization and the characters are most important to me. I can deal with any plot, no matter how cliché, as long as the characters grab and hold me, as long as they are realistic in some ways or identifiable; that for me is the clincher. Ideas and world building are good, but stale characters break the book.”
In The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, Jemisin has solidified an extensive history that exists only in her heroine, Yeine’s world. How did she set out to create such a concrete, tangible world? “Parts of it were spitted out of my head. But some of it is borrowed from existing religions as well as the concept of religion itself. For me, I consider myself spiritual but not religious. The instant I see the beauty of the world, I don’t understand how you can’t believe in a god. But the ways that religion can be perverted for power, I understand where people can struggle.”
Gods and their humanity are a theme of the novel. A motivation for Jemisin, “The idea that if we are made in the image of our god, then god could be extremely flawed if they have the same problems and flaws we do. I wondered about the gods and what if they had both phenomenal powers and family problems? The Greeks did the same thing, their gods were a family and they were dysfunctional. Gods with real human problems can make them more identifiable.”
The book is a mesmerizing journey, but it’s also very complicated and the threads of plot are intricately interwoven. As a reader, it’s fun and exhilarating. It’s also hard not to wonder how extensive Jemisin’s outline was. “I had an outline, I’ve always have an outline, and then I stopped following it somewhere along the way. I wrote the novel in its entirety once before 10 years ago. At the time it was very different. It had the same characters and drama, but it was in third person, the protagonist was male, and there was no romance.
“The book did not sell and so I put it aside and trunked it. The concept always stayed with me. I knew there were good bones; I just had to strip off the other parts. [The romance] was never really a conscious decision, but I like romance. I believe it belongs in science fiction and fantasy. One of the things that made the concept of gods appeal to me was that they often do act out of love.”
So does Jemisin hope that her novel offers a specific message to the reader? “No. Honestly, I think that artists have a responsibility to write whatever is in their soul or head and then stop. Then, it’s up to the reader to draw whatever they want out of it. As far as I am concerned reading is the ultimate interactive experience. The writer gives the words, but there is only so far you can go from there. The reader has to engage with their own understanding and background. I write purely for myself. I write because there are images and voices and characters in my head and I want to get them out. I do it for my own entertainment, and I don’t expect my readers to see the same things.”
What advice does Jemisin have for aspiring writers? “Perseverance. Theresa Neilson Hayden and Patrick Neilson Hayden said during their Viable Paradise writing workshop, which I highly recommend, that you cannot succeed if you quit. If you keep trying and submitting and improving, you will break through somewhere. Instead of stopping because my book didn’t initially sell, I kept at it. The vast majority of writers don’t make money. You can’t survive on the average novel advance this day. Wages don’t necessarily keep up with the cost of living. So, be in it because you love it. Write because you love to.”
So what dreams does Jemisin have and where does she hope her adventures as a writer will lead her? “The only real accomplishment I would consider as my dream would be to become a full time writer on a permanent basis. If I could make enough money for my writing to continue full time, that would be my goal. It’s a full time job being a writer, and I would love for this to be my career.”
Jemisin’s fans couldn’t agree more. With stories so captivating you’re ready to return to the beginning as soon as the final page is turned, Jemisin has more than a way with her words. This reader can’t wait to see where she takes us next.
Fore more on NK Jemisin visit: http://nkjemisin.com/
*Images via authors website
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