Marianne de Pierres chats about genre blending (and bending)
The very versatile and talented Marianne de Pierres has a new novel out in five weeks, the clever genre-bending thriller Peacemaker (read my thoughts on it here). I offered to participate in the Peacemaker blog tour because I wanted to ask Marianne about her creative process for this latest project, and I thought a few of you might be interested in the answer. So here it is…
Given you’re adept at a number of genres, how did you decide which elements to bring together – and in what order did they come to you? Western, urban fantasy, sci fi…what was the spark that joined the dots for you?
Marianne:
I wrote a short story almost ten years ago entitled Gin Jackson: Neophtyte Ranger which Cat Sparks published in Agog! The main character in PEACEMAKER was born back then, but she was situated in a futuristic outback Australia, in a town protected by an environmental bubble. 
When I got the idea for PEACEMAKER, I knew from the outset that I wanted to use Gin as my protagonist, but somehow locate her in a place where I could indulge my love for western novels. Gin Jackson became Virgin, and the rest just slotted together in my mind like a bolt locking into place. I had already visited the notion of Australia super cities in the Parrish Plessis novels, and it was an idea I wanted to continue to explore. In PEACEMAKER, however (unlike Nylon Angel’s Parrishverse), there is no barren interior. The PEACEMAKER world depicts a future Australia that is densely populated throughout, other than this one tract of land – Birrimun Park – which has been preserved as a natural habitat.
Some of the pre-publication discussion about the book has suggested a Firefly kind of world, but it is really nothing at all like that great series. The urban fantasy elements are very strong in PEACEMAKER and they sit firmly atop a story heavy in crime, mystery and semi-espionage. For some inexplicable reason, I also kept getting echoes of Robert Holdstock’s classic novel, Mythago Wood as I began to write. It seemed strange but I’ve learnt to trust these instincts. Suddenly, it became clear that as the story arc played out in my mind, and the fantastical elements began to develop, that the series would tilt more towards a mythical saga. Go figure?
If you are the kind of reader who likes to have both feet planted firmly in a single genre story then PEACEMAKER is not for you. But if you like the notion of a tale that tugs you in a number of directions then I expect — hope — you will enjoy the ride! 🙂
Thanks Marianne. 🙂
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