Patricia Briggs
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Patricia Briggs (b. 1965) is an award-winning fantasy author known for her lifelike characters and humorous dialogue. She was born in Butte, Montana, and lived in various cities in the Pacific Northwest before returning to her home town.
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[edit] Writing history
She began writing in 1990 while living in Chicago (the only time she's left the Northwest). She began writing a story in an imaginary world that she and a high-school friend had talked about. After writing the first twenty pages numerous times, she gained the confidence to finish the manuscript. She hadn't initially intended to ever submit it for publication, but after reading Orson Scott Card's How to Write Science Fiction & Fantasy she sent out query letters to several publishers, and got a request from the editor at Ace to submit the manuscript.
Her first submission was printed with a dying dot-matrix printer, and shipped in an old shirt-box padded with the tractor-feeds left from printing. This submission was ultimately rejected, but with a very kind letter from the editor who pointed out some of the major flaws in the book, and suggested that, if those could be addressed, she would be willing to look at the manuscript again. Within a few weeks, the manuscript was altered and resubmitted. A few months later Patricia got a phone call indicating that Ace wanted to buy the manuscript! Masks (renamed as Masques at the publisher's request) had sold.
While there are some authors who gain fame and fortune immediately, most first novels experience only modest success. Masques fared less well than most, selling only a couple thousand copies. Patricia had started writing a sequel to Masques, but after looking at the early sales figures, she wrote Steal the Dragon. This book set in the same world, but with completely different characters. Patricia reasoned that, if necessary, she could alter the world slightly and possibly publish it under a different name, since selling a sequel to a failure is a difficult proposition. Fortunately, she was able to complete the sale of her second book before the final sales figures for her first were computed.
She followed the same course of action with her third novel, writing in the same world but with unrelated characters. When Demon's Walk nearly didn't sell at all; by the time it was submitted the publisher had gotten the final numbers on Masques, and were not favorably impressed. The sales of this, and her next book The Hob's Bargain she attributes largely to having an agent willing to go the extra mile.
From this point on, things improved dramatically. As each book was released, it sold a little better than the one before it. This slow-but-steady growth in readership is apparently rare in the hit-and-miss world of publishing, and has continued through all of her books.
With better sales, and correspondingly higher confidence in selling her next work, she was able to begin writing multi-book stories. Dragon Bones and Dragon Blood share both the same world and the same characters, though both are complete stories. Raven's Shadow and Raven's Strike are an honest duology, with a single story line spanning both novels. More recently, she has announced there will be at least four novels in her best-selling Mercy series. One hallmark of Briggs' books is that, even when writing in a series, each book is a stand-alone story, and the reader is never left with a cliffhanger ending waiting for the next novel to figure out what happened.
[edit] Her writing style
Patrica writes with an easy, conversational tone rather than with sweeping grace and eloquence. Her world building is solid, and she goes to some lengths to get the details right—calling museums or university professors to get obscure details right. She's earned degrees in European history and German, which also contribute to building believable fantasy worlds. Her forte, however, is in populating these worlds with interesting, vibrant characters. From the main characters to the bit parts, Patricia has a knack for making her characters seem real.
Although her characters are indeed lifelike, only two characters, Shark and Ward, are based on real people, and then only in certain aspects. In addition, she seems to like her protagonists to have secrets; to be more than what they first appear.
Her characters often have complex motivations and flawed perceptions and motivations. The many-layered tapestry of her stories are a result of a non-linear writing style. Patricia doesn't write as quickly as many authors, nor does she work from an outline. She writes the story, scene by scene, frequently deleting large pieces of work if the plot isn't advancing to her liking.
Briggs' books often end with the feeling that the characters lives are not yet complete, making many fans suspect coming sequels to books that were never intended to be continuing stories. As she said in an interview: "I don't believe in absolute endings. Life doesn't just stop when Cinderella marries the Prince. How terrible for her if it did!" Happy ever aftering is, after all, a process not a destination.
Perhaps it is her interests that make her books enjoyable for many people.
[edit] Her works
[edit] Novels
Sianim Series
- The Hob's Bargain (2001)
Hurog Duology
- Dragon Bones (2002)
- Dragon Blood (2002)
Raven Duology
Mercedes Thompson Series
- Moon Called (2006)
- Blood Bound (2007)
- Iron Kissed (Expected January 2008)
- Mercy IV (No working title) (expected January 2009)
[edit] Anthology Contributions
- The Price in Silver Birch, Blood Moon (by Terri Windling and Ellen Datlow)
- Alpha and Omega in On the Prowl (Expected release date August 2007)
