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Black
Dog is a fantasy story that I was not sure about
a few times. Parts of it were a bit tough to follow,
as there was so much going on. At one point there is
a description that read something like this. “As
confused as a dog in a room with too many smells to
smell.” There was so much going on, I related
to that phrase. I was torn. I wanted to put it down
to digest it, yet didn’t want to put it down.
Thankfully I pressed on.
The
beginning paints a vivid image as to the surroundings
and to what is happening. Then mass hysteria slowly
envelopes the whole area as safety becomes a thing of
the past. This keeps going from there on out, until
the end, with several surprises along the way. The total
amount of characters is what surprised me, and to which
I found to be the stories core value. Each person had
their own individuality, and their own voice. If you
are looking for a simple, put down, and go several days
without reading book, this is not it. To keep up on
what is going, this has to be read every day, and it
has to be the only story you are reading. My personal
favorite parts were when there was Gods questioning
their next move. It gave them a human element I have
never seen anywhere else. On a down side, there are
a few places where the story jumps years of time. I
thought the time jumps caused the story to lose momentum,
and then it took several pages to get back to the speed
it was at. The description’s made up for that.
Every conversation is well thought out from every angle,
all the way down to the most private thoughts, in some
case not even spoken. Overall, a fantasy lover’s
book.
KV Johansen has taken a few moments out of her busy
schedule to answer some questions to give some insight
into her and her book.
Corky: There are so many characters-each one
with such a unique personality that writing this almost
had to have been like a stenographer trying to record
a room full of people all talking at once. How did you
keep each one as an individual?
KV: It seems like it ought to be overwhelming,
but I've never really had a problem keeping track of
the personality of my characters. I think maybe that's
because they're usually evolved as I go along, rather
than created to fill a specific role. They grow into
place and I get to know them as they do so, like discovering
the complexities of real people. By the time their complexities
have unfolded, I've had lots of time to get to know
them.
Corky: My personal favorite character is Holla
Sayan. I quickly related to him from the beginning.
Who would you say is your favorite character, and why?
KV: In Blackdog, Holla-Sayan is
definitely one of my favourites. He's the person the
story began with. I really enjoyed writing him a lot
-- he does this one act of basic human decency because
he's a good man and gets dragged way out of his depth
in this conflict of gods and devils, in danger of losing
himself. Moth and Mikki are also favourites. They're
the characters who link all the stories in the Blackdog
world; I suppose you could say they wander in and out
of other people's stories -- Holla-Sayan's in Blackdog,
Ahjvar and Ghu and Ivah's in The Leopard and The Lady.
It's only in 'The Storyteller' that Moth and Mikki are
at the centre of things.
Corky: The story takes place over several years.
How much of the story did you have in mind when you
started writing, and how much was altered and or added
as the story progressed?
KV: When I started writing I wasn't sure at
all where it was going, though I knew some of how it
would end. It was obvious there was going to be a gap
of time to leap over, though, because I didn't want
to be writing about Pakdhala growing up in any kind
of detail; I needed to bridge that gap between her as
a little girl and her as a young woman, to get to the
point where she was old enough that she and Holla-Sayan
could go back to face her enemy. I needed to show that
things had been going on in the mountains, though, with
the priestesses' underground resistance, so that need
spurred the development of characters like the young
priestess Attavaia and the mountain culture of the defeated
god Narva, things I hadn't envisioned at the beginning
at all.
Corky: One of the characters tosses coins to
get a reading on what the future holds. How familiar
are you with this concept, and if given the chance,
would you consider having a reading done, in this fashion,
to see your future?
KV: The Nabbani coin-thowing that Ivah does
is based on the i-Ching, which I researched for this,
along with other divination practices. It might be fun
to have a reading done, but I don't actually put any
credence in such things in the real world. All the ways
that different human cultures have tried to figure out
the great and small unknowns of life are very interesting,
though.
Corky: The main character, BlackDog,
is he based upon a dog you personally know from your
own life and experiences?
KV: The dog-aspects of the Blackdog are drawn
from various real dogs I've known. Certainly his driving
need to protect Attalissa is influenced by observing
what a one-man dog is like -- the sort of dog that forms
an exceptionally strong bond with one human in particular.
In Holla-Sayan, that drive is also influenced by --
muddled up with, you could say -- a parent's need to
protect their child, but the dog's lack of reason creates
difficulties there, and can be dangerous.
Corky: You now have a two book set
out. The Leopard and The Lady. What
can you tell us about them?
KV: The two halves of Marakand, The Leopard
and The Lady, are set in the same world
as Blackdog, about a year later. They're not a sequel
as such but a story about some new characters, though
Holla-Sayan, Ivah, who is one of Holla's lesser enemies
in Blackdog, and of course Moth and Mikki, are in them,
as well as some secondary characters like Gaguush and
Varro from Holla-Sayan's gang. Some of the things that
happen in The Leopard and The Lady come about because
of what happened in Blackdog; other events would have
occurred regardless of what went on in the mountains.
The main characters in the two parts of Marakand are
an assassin under a curse, who is the catalyst for much
of what follows, his rather mysterious friend, a very
reluctant royal heir, and a young temple dancer who
makes a very bad bargain with a goddess.
Corky: If your readers only get one thing out
of your books, what would you want it to be?
KV: I'd like them to be taken away from themselves
for a while.
Corky: If it was possible to talk
to everyone of your readers in a one on one basis, what
you would say to them?
KV: Different things to different people,
probably! Readers read for so many reasons, and can
take so many things from a book -- a book can be different
things to the same person at different times -- that
I can't really think of one thing to say to every reader.
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