r/books • u/Lampwright4 AMA Author • Nov 16 '16
ama 1:30pm Greetings, I am L. Jagi Lamplighter (Wright), author of the Prospero’s Children series and more, and my writing is all about the wonder, AMA!
I am an author. I love magic and wonder, and I strive to make these things come alive in my stories…filling them with awe and joy, in addition to action, mystery, fantasy, and more.
When not writing, I switch to my secret identity as wife and stay-home mom, where I live with my dashing husband, author John C. Wright, and our four kids: Orville, Ping-Ping Eve, the Cherubim*, and Justinian Oberon—a.k.a. The Elf King or Prince Wright. Oh, and I am also an Assistant Scout Master for Boy Scout Troop 2.
Anyway, looking forward to chatting with you all. Bring any question you like! (If I don’t know the answer, I can always supply the universal answer of 42. But I will do mybest.
Ask Me Anything!
*Yes, we do know that Cherubim is ordinarily a plural. Thanks for your concern. :-)
Proof: https://www.facebook.com/l.jagi.wright/posts/10154728900631967?pnref=story
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u/Achariyth Nov 16 '16
Is there a connection between the Moths of Rachel's world and the Moths of Swan Knight's Song?
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u/Lampwright4 Nov 16 '16
Yes. Yes there is.
The Moths are an inter-dimensional family and they exist in many backgrounds. They are the most far-ranging family in the universe. If you play the Roanoke roleplaying game, and you put your star in Family, you are, by definition, a Moth.
John made up the Moth family when he put his star in Family. The first Moth character was Dusty Moth, who will probably appear in the books somewhere. The second, also John's character, was Blackie Moth, whose real name is longer, as Gaius and co have just found out in this brief bit from Book Four:
“Though I guess you need a distinctive first name to go with Moth,” Gaius continued airily, “Isn’t absolutely everyone and his neighbor named Moth in the World of the Wise? Dean Moth. Nurse Moth. Your family. That singer, what’s his name, Marble Moth? That super-tall proctor with the cowboy hat at Roanoke, Coal Moth, and his younger siblings, also named after rocks, except for Ignatious—who was probably originally called Igneous. “Then, there’s the girl who married the captain of the Flying Dutchman, Marigold Merryweather Moth. And the one we learned about in Math, Easterly Moth. And we covered so many Moths in True History that I couldn’t list ‘em if my life depended on it. I’d wager that over nineteen percent of the people we’ve studied in that class have been named Moth—most of them named after mist or sea foam or some other physical object. What’s it with all these Moths?” “We’re the most far-flung family in the World of the Wise,” Blackie replied dryly. “Weird that you are so common, yet I’d never even heard of the Moths before I came to school,” said Gaius. “That’s because the Unwary branches of the family have other names,” replied Blackie, “like Smith, Wright, and Brown.” “Wha-…you mean the Smiths are a branch of the Moths?” “Yup,” replied Blackie. Gaius turned to William, as if he thought the older boy would confirm that Blackie was pulling his leg, but William merely nodded. “Is Sigfried Smith a Moth?” asked Gaius. Rachel shook herself free of the shock of Blackie’s note and murmured, “I’m pretty sure Siggy made his name up.”
But, yeah, they are all descended from Oberon's right hand man, Moth...even if they appear different in different worlds.
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u/Achariyth Nov 16 '16
Thank you. Now to bookmark this for the Puppy of the Month club...
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u/Scholar-at-Arms Nov 16 '16
How many Rachel Griffin books do you expect the series to contain?
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u/JefftheBaptist Nov 16 '16
A lot of your books and your husbands books seem to come from roleplaying games. I believe you mentioned that the Rachel Griffin books did as did the Children of Chaos books.
How often do you game? If the two of you play together does one get to call dibs on something? What parts do you take from the game: characters, story, general inspiration, or just anything that seems awesome at the time?
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u/Lampwright4 Nov 16 '16
I should add: My Prospero's Daughter series is also based on a roleplaying game. In fact, it started as a write-up for a Amber Diceless game. Some of the scenes, and all of Miranda's siblings, were borrowed from John's long-running Corruption Campaign.
The scene where Miranda is chased by Barghests and runs into the mall...only to meet a very unexpected person was taken from the Corruption Campaign. (Only it was Victoria Woods, from my yet-unpublished Uncross The Stars novel who went through that scenario the first time.)
The original write up I did for the game where I originally played Miranda was tweeked into a short story. It appears in this new anthology of my short stories:
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u/Flikery Nov 16 '16
Madam authoress,
My daughter is soon to be 17 months old. I have begun reading your Rachel Griffin series in anticipation of one day sharing the stories with my daughter. When do you think would be an appropriate age to begin reading these stories to her, as I do with her picture books? A related question, what books would you think to be essential to a young girl as she grows?
Thanks for your thoughts!
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u/JCSalomon Nov 16 '16
You’ve answered this to me personally and at length, but perhaps you’ve got a shorter answer that I can point people at—
How explicitly Christian are the Rachel Griffin books going to become?
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u/annafirtree Nov 16 '16
Which is your favorite book of the ones you have written?
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u/pawel_z_wrocka Nov 16 '16
Thank you for the Rachel Griffin series. I am absolutely enthralled by it. Now, to the question… There are many characters in the books that allude either to other literary works or to mythology. Some are obvious, others less so. Are you planning on writing a sort of glossary (maybe online) one day, explaining them or do you want your readers to keep guessing?
Also, as an aside, let me say it was a good marketing move to make the first book free for some time. I downloaded it to my Kindle and bought the next one immediately after having finished reading… and then the third one :-)
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u/Lampwright4 Nov 16 '16
;-) I plan to move the first book permanently to 99 cents as soon as Book Four comes out. I will make it free when I can. Amazon limits that to about 20 days a year.
As to the other, it is a difficult thing. I can kind of informally tell people, but if I say too clearly "Vladimir Von Dread is 18 year old Victor Von Doom" and the like, I could theoretically ruffle feathers of the people who own those characters.
But we'll see...might happen. ;-)
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u/Angnomander Nov 16 '16
Do you watch a lot of anime? The Unexpected Enlightenment of Rachel Griffin reminded me more of magical girl goes off to magical college type anime than Hogwarts. Yet many reviews mention Hogwarts.
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u/TheBayouKid Nov 16 '16
How can an aspiring author get their work out their for people to read?
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u/JCSalomon Nov 16 '16
Within the Books of Unexpected Enlightenment (the Rachel Griffin series), which character whom we readers have not yet met are you most looking forward to introducing?
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u/ShutUpHeExplained Nov 16 '16
Which of your books came most easily to you? Did the any of your books go in unexpected directions?
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Nov 16 '16
Sequal to Prospero's Daughter when
No but seriously, I am a genuinely big fan of your Prospero's Daughter books, found you through your husband Mr. Wright and I dont regret picking them up for a minute. In fact I actually got legitimately angry with all five of the spelling errors I noticed in the book that tripped up my pace, because the story was just genuinely that engaging. Especially the penultimate confrontation with the queen of air and darkness, that was brilliant.
I was wondering if you'd be interested in doing books along similar vein again. I have been reluctant to pick up your other series, the Unexpected Enlightenment, because it was aimed at younger readers, so I would appreciate any clarification on this.
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u/AMFreeman Nov 16 '16
What was your favorite part about writing your Prospero Daughter books?
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u/pawel_z_wrocka Nov 16 '16
Your husband writes both science fiction and fantasy now. Are you planning on writing sci-fi? (I would so read that!)
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u/Lampwright4 Nov 16 '16
I have a couple of SF short stories. There are a couple of them in the In the Lamplight anthology and one appeared in Sci Phi Journal in June, I think.
My sf tends to have a slight fantasy mood to it, but I do like writing that kind of story.
I guess my story in God, Robot is sf, too. That one stars Rachel Griffin's roomate, Astrid, before she came to earth and was turned into a kid again.
https://www.amazon.com/God-Robot-Anthony-Marchetta-ebook/dp/B01EBODSPE/?tag=lampwright-20
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u/AMFreeman Nov 16 '16
Would you like to see any of your books made into movies someday?
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u/Notelraca Nov 16 '16
How do you and your husband schedule your writing times around raising four kids?