Published in Issue
7 of Bloodsongs magazine, 1996
by Barbara
Welton
After a few false
starts, I've finally got Storm Constantine on the other end of the line. She's just
got out of her
bath, is looking for her cigarettes, and needs to change phones because
"the one in
the bedroom has too
much buzz on it". She apologises
for not having been available the first three
times I've tried to
call but explains that life has been just a tad hectic of late. She's in the middle of
promoting her
latest release, "Stalking Tender Prey", is gearing up for an October
release of its
sequel, and is soon
to be travelling overseas, a trip which will bring her to Australia around
Easter.
I should think life
would be hectic pretty much all the time for a writer who has published ten
novels in nine years,
managed two bands, published "a multitude" of short stories in sci-fi
magazines and
anthologies, exhibited and sold her own artwork, wrote sleeve-notes for a
retrospective album
of goth greats Fields of the Nephilim, and dabbled in a little film
experimentation. And she still finds time for a regular
Thursday night drinking session during
which she and her
friends "get loads of wine and put the world to rights!".
Storm caught a lot
of eyes with her first novel in 1987 - "The Enchantments of Flesh and
Spirit",
the first of the
Wraeththu series. However, the
sci-fi/fantasy establishment didn't take as much
notice of the novel
or its sequels ("The Bewitchments of Love and Hate" and "The
Fulfilments of
Fate and
Desire") as the gothic subculture did.
Afterall, she was one of us, wasn't she? A
skinhead chick
couldn't have created lovely hermaphrodite creatures such as the Wraeththu,
could
they? For the first time in print, here was a
writer who understood and appreciated the beauty and
magic of an
oft-ridiculed section of the alternative community. For that reason alone, I feel a little
in awe of the
friendly, chirpy voice on my phone.
I tell her how,
whilst waiting for her to finish her bath, I'd used the time to start reading
the new
novel. 'It looks great,' I say, 'I can't wait to
get into it', and she laughs delightedly.
Storm laughs
a lot. And giggles. I start to feel more like I'm chatting to a mate in a smoky goth
club at three in
the morning, and
after a few vodkas, than an internationally known author who counts some of my
favourite musicians
amongst her social circle. In other words,
she makes it very easy.
"Stalking
Tender Prey" has just been released here in Australia. Would you like to sum it up
for people who
haven't seen it yet?
'Sure. Basically, it stems from my interest in the
Nefilim and fallen angels, which I first addressed
in novel form in
'Burying the Shadow', really. But I
always wanted to investigate it in more depth,
because it's a
mythology that few writers have bothered with.
And because it's such a massive
subject, and
there's just so much stuff, there's no way it could go into just one book. So, along
with my friend Andy
Collins, who's an authority on this subject (he writes non-fiction books), we
came up with a
synopsis using a lot of Andy's research.
He's got a book due out from Creed this
year, and so I used
his research notes for the novel. It's
about the Grigori, which is another word
for Nefilim really,
being still among us and being a different race. It's similar, in some ways, to
vampire legends, I
suppose, but it's not about blood sucking or any of that garbage.'
[laughter]
I'm actually
really quite excited that you've decided to do a novel in the 'here and
now'. Was
that daunting
for you after having made your name with fantasy worlds?
'Well, I'd done
quite a few short stories, and I did fancy a little change. Also, I thought it's going
to be slightly more
commercial and I'll be able to reach a wider audience with it, so there was
quite
a hardnosed reason
for it as well. I think it works well,
too, to mix the mythology with the present
day thing - it's
not quite as heavy that way, I don't think.'
There can be a
slight danger with a series, I suppose, that readers might feel a little
disappointed if
you "do something awful" to a character they've become attached to
over the course
of the
books. Are you conscious, when writing,
of what the readers will think?
'I don't think
so. Most of my so-called 'heroes' have
been anti-heroes anyway, like Cal in the
Wraeththu
series. And I think Peverel Othman in
these books is the same sort of character because
he does dreadful
things to people, but people love him because he's... Well, obviously the book
explains why that
is so and there are reasons for that, but I can't tell you because it
would spoil the
story!'
So, you can't
ever imagine yourself changing something that you had originally planned to do
just to please
the public's expectations?
'Not really to
please anyone else. I think the
characters have their own way though - in a sense,
they evolve. I'm not the sort of writer who writes out huge
lists of attributes for
characters before I
begin writing. I think writing's a bit
like real life in that, when you meet
somebody, you don't
know a lot about them apart from what they look like, and I think characters
are the same with
me. After I start to write about them,
I get to know them and things come out of
them that implicate
change in the course of the novel, and although I don't let that get out of
control, because
you have to keep a certain amount of reign on it, it's also interesting because
it can
take it off into
areas that you wouldn't think of otherwise.'
The artwork for
the book is fabulous, as are all your books.
I can't think of any other author,
actually, who's
work is consistently so well presented as yours. And I was just wondering how
much of that is
your direct influence?
'Totally. I was with Macdonald for the first five
novels, and the covers I got with them were so
disappointing,
especially the Wraeththu books - I just couldn't believe the sort of
covers
I got for
them. They were awful! So once I moved to Headline, I made it clear
from the outset of
the contract that I
wanted input in that area. Then when I
moved to Penguin-Creed I did the same
thing, and they
knew that I'd had input before so they trusted my judgement really. I got my friend
Anne Sudworth to do
the covers for this trilogy, and the second one is even better than the first,
if
you can believe
it! It's just brilliant!'
You've said
before that when you're feeling a bit dead-brained, you like to watch
"some good
sinister
animation". Just what do you
consider sinister, and how do ideas form from that?
'I think it's more
the feelings they evoke. Svenkmajer, I
really like him, and the Brothers Quay,
who I think are
English - their influence has always been around - and David Anderson I like
quite
a lot, too. I collect animation, and we have in this
country, a programme called "Formations"
that's on Channel
4, and I collect them all on video.
Some of them are pretty crap, but I pick out
the best ones and
play them back. I think it's my mood
they change, which makes me feel more
creative. Have you ever seen any Brothers Quay
animation?'
Not that I'm
aware of.
'Well, there's one
called "Street of Crocodiles" which is just brilliant. Because it is
really sinister, really strange, and it's just so odd, and so imaginative,
that
it just sets me off
and I think "Oh yeah, I feel inspired again now!".'
Your books
certainly have a gothic darkness to them, and you reworked the vampire legends
with
"Burying the Shadow" and so on... do you see yourself perhaps moving
a little bit away from
standard sci-fi
and taking a deliberate side-step towards the more sinister world of horror?
'Well, I haven't
done any pure science fiction for quite a long time. I think it is a very competitive
arena in that most
of the people who write science fiction really know their stuff about science
which, of course,
is changing rapidly all the time and I haven't really kept up with what's been
going on. So I don't really feel qualified at the
moment to have designs in that area.
Fantasy, I'll
always love, and
even if I don't write any fantasy novels for a couple of years, I'll continue
to write
short stories
that'll hopefully get published around the place. I suppose, for the time being, I'm
quite interested in
dark fantasy which veers away from the physical side of horror, so I don't like
to
call it horror as
such.'
'Not so much as a
child, but the one that stuck in my mind when I was about 14 was called
"Carnival of
Souls" which was a black and white movie.
It's recently been re-released and become
quite a cult movie
now, and that absolutely terrified me when I first saw it. It was
played at a
convention a couple of years ago in England, and I said to my friends "Oh,
you're
gonna have to watch
this movie! You've got to stay up and
watch it - it's so scary!".
So we went down to
the film theatre and sat there and it came up and it was just so
awful! I
couldn't believe it! And I thought,
"God - I was scared by this!".
It just didn't
hold up the second
time.'
'No, I wish they
would though.'
'Oh, very much,
yeah. I've always seen my work very
visually when I'm doing it, and I fantasise
about how it could
be filmed and everything, so yes, I'd love that.'
I'm just
interested in your opinion about something.
Do you think Anne Rice handled the
whole
"Interview With the Vampire" thing well? Such as her initial slamming of the project and
then the almost
embarrassing praise of it afterwards?
'I think -and I
don't mean to be rude or anything- but I think she's a very eccentric person,
and... I
don't know... it's
difficult, but I don't think I would have handled it quite that way, but
everyone's
different, aren't
they?' [laughter]
Do you think
seeing things like that in the media would put other writers, like yourself,
off
from having
film-makers interfere with their visions?
'I recently read an
article in The Telegraph over here, that said books are really the only
true way that the modern
artist can get their vision across. If
you get into film or
music, you've got
to accept that it's then a committee of people, and you've got to accept that
it
will never, ever be
solely your work. And I think that's
really true, so if I ever was in that
position, I think I
would have to accept that there'd only be a very small part of me in the
finished
product. It's a part of that industry, and you can't
just stamp your foot up and down because that's
the way it is.'
Now - moving
from film to music, because it's obviously very important in your work... Do
you actually use
music as part of your writing routine?
'I use it for
inspiration, but I can't actually have it on when I'm typing on the word
processor
because it
interferes with the development of ideas while I'm actually working. But I do sit down
with music and
dream and take inspiration from that.'
'Well, I tend to get
"soundtracks" for particular books.
The ones for "Stalking Tender Prey" were
a Nick Cave one,
the last album but one I think, called "Let Love In". It was a bit bizarre actually,
because I was about
half way through the book when I got the album and I was thinking "My
god!
These tracks are so
pertinent to what the book's about!".
So I used that quite a lot for inspiration.
Also, the Leftfield
album, "Leftism", was very inspiring.'
The inspiration
you take from music is fairly obvious, in particular the Gothic scene is quite
conspicuous,
especially to those of us who know. Do
you possibly think you could have created the
worlds and
characters that you have if you'd grown up with any other subculture?
'I think it's very
much an "each to their own" situation there. I was drawn to that scene because it
was me and I don't
think I could have been anything else, really.
I started off being like a hippy-
chick, I suppose,
in the early '70s and then moved to punk, and from punk gradually evolved what
is now known as
"goth". But in fact, the term
"goth" started off as an insult, really. People would
say "Urgh,
that's the goth house!", you know, and that was where I lived!
[giggle] And we didn't use it to refer to ourselves
either, it was other people who used it,
but then gradually
it started getting used by us too.'
'Not in England,
no, I detest it. It's moribund. What you have over in Australia and, I think
what's happening in
Germany and America is still very vibrant and you've got lots of new things
coming along and
you've got interesting new bands that aren't so derivative. Whereas, in this
country, it's so
bland really. There is no way that I
would buy a new CD from a goth band in
England and use it
for inspiration because it's so dull compared to the music I grew up
with, and there's
nothing for me to work with there. It's
just not happening. There's one or two
clubs left that are
okay, but it's not in a healthy state.
Then again, there are a few kids, sixteen
year olds, that
look interesting, so hopefully it's not going to die out. Maybe there will be a bit of
a
renaissance.'
'There's one thing
that happens over here, it probably happens everywhere actually, where things
go in cycles. We've already had a punk re-emergence, and
you can see the music evolving again
through being
"70s" and maybe when we get to goth again, that will be a bit of an
injection.'
'Oh, I'll never be
too old! I've found my home, this is
where I am!' [much laughter]
'Well, I think they
should compare her to me actually, because I've been around a hell of a lot
longer! Yeah, when I first read her books, I thought
"Oh, here's someone who's read the
Wraeththu
books". I may be wrong, maybe
she's never read any of my stuff, but I do see the
comparisons. But, I do like her work, I think her short
stories are excellent, though as
a novelist I think
she's yet to write her best book, but her short stories are superb.'
Poppy has talked
a lot in interviews about how she doesn't do the goth lifestyle anymore, and
yet her stories
are still obsessed with goths! I like
the fact that you're obviously still very much
involved...
'Well, yeah, it's
such a part of my life, it's the people that I know, the people that I mix
with, they
give me a lot of
inspiration. I don't do it as a
conscious thing. It's a lot of what
makes me feel
creative. It's the way it is.'
I'd like to wrap
up with a couple of technical questions
now, because I haven't seen anybody
else ask you
about these things... I've always
admired your (for want of a better word) "invented"
words, and I've
often had visions of you sitting there with a dog-eared dictionary, pasting
words
together. How do you create your language?
'That's exactly
what I do! [giggle] I've got a copy of The Shorter Oxford
Dictionary
which is the
cheapest version of the full-length one that you can get, and it's full of all
sorts of
obsolete words, and
I use a lot of those as place names and people names. And I've got some very,
very old
dictionaries as well that I trawl for words.'
I'll have to
stock up on my dictionaries.
'Garage sales are
good, or car boot sales. You can get
some really old, tatty ones quite cheaply.
They're very good.'
It's hard to
tell, with all the androgyny and sexual ambiguity in your stories, if you feel
more
comfortable
writing from one sex's viewpoint or the other, which I think is a very positive
thing, but
are you aware of
that sexual balance whilst actually writing?
'No, not really, I
just write what comes out. I always
think the reader is better placed to analyse
that kind of thing
than the writer. As the writer, you
sort of put down what's in your head or your
heart, and I don't
think you can be as creative if you're thinking about that sort of thing.'
'I like "Sign
for the Sacred" quite a lot, and I like this new series now. Usually, it's what you've
just finished that
is your favourite one, so I like the sequel to "Stalking Tender Prey"
a lot.'
'I have got the
sequel to "Sign for the Sacred".
I've actually started it, but when I'm going to get
to writing it, I
don't know. Actually, there is a
possibility that I'll go back to the Wraeththu at
some time because
it is likely that the trilogy will be released again.'
end of the
Wraeththu series?
'Well, I did have a
synopsis sketched down for that - quite a big one, actually - there was a whole
novel about
them. And people have said that there
were still questions left to answer about the
trilogy. I'm not quite sure yet. I think a lot of it will be down to Penguin
and what they really
want.'
The last
official question - If you could sum up the role of the writer, whether in
society as a
whole or just
within your own culture or subculture, what do you think that role should be?
'My god, that's a
heavy question! [laughter] Um, I suppose it's entertainment. Also,
from the magickal
perspective for me, it's all about showing people 'the great works'; making
people aware of the
realities, not the myths, of that. And
there's a certain amount of arrogance in
that you're wanting
the world to know what you think about it.'
Storm Constantine
thinks a lot about the world. She
thinks about it in detail, with a great deal of
energy, and
describes it with beautiful language.
Each new journey into her thinking shows us a
world or worlds we
may not have thought about ourselves if she hadn't have taken us there.
The phone
discussion turns to matters more personal for some minutes before winding
down. If I
had felt wary and
nervous when the voice on the other end of the line had said "Yes, this is
Storm!"
earlier on, I only
feel gratified and a touch melancholy as we say 'ta-ra' now.
What I really want
is to curl up on the couch with a cup of tea and "Stalking Tender
Prey", but it's
coming up to 9am
here in Melbourne and I, unfortunately, have work to drag myself off to. It'll be
hard not to lend a
thought or two during the day to Storm, Tigger, Deb and Paula, sitting around
Storm's loungeroom,
putting the world to rights.
Yes. Must stock up on loads of wine and old
dictionaries.
the end.