Interview: Patricia Briggs and Bone Crossed

I wasn't too sure about interviewing Patricia Briggs. I haven't had much reading (or other) experience with urban fantasy--werewolves, vampires or fae--although I've read and thoroughly enjoyed books by Kelley Armstrong and Mike Carey. But when I saw that her latest in the Mercy Thompson series, Bone Crossed (Ace, February 2009), was set in the Tri-Cities, I was intrigued. For those of you who don't know Washington State, the Tri-Cities (Richland, Kennewick, Pasco) are in semi-arid southeastern Washington. It's an area known for fabulous wines and boring trailer parks, the mighty Columbia, Yakima and Snake rivers and chain restaurants, great taco trucks and the Hanford nuclear waste site. Depending on your taste, it's either dramatically beautiful or overwhelmingly bleak. But . . . a setting for urban fantasy? It works. Patty Briggs has the skill to create a Tri-Cities that may not rival the Forks of Twilight fame, but surely deserves to have a few guided tours of its own (as long as taco trucks and wineries are included).

The heroine of Bone Crossed, Mercy Thompson, is a car mechanic and were-coyote; as if that weren't enough for excitement, she's also in a heap of trouble. In Briggs's previous book, Mercy killed a member of the local vampire queen's clan, and the woman is now out for Mercy's blood, literally. There's also a werewolf love interest, Adam; a vampire friend, Stefan; and Zee, a fae--standard plot fare, but with a richly-imagined background. The fae have been "out" for several decades, a result of modern forensics identifying them. They manage interaction with humans by allowing themselves to live on reservations, with many of the same restrictions and government legislation that other minorities have experienced. However, this restriction with its ID checks is somewhat amusing to the fae, since they can change appearance at will. Werewolves, however, have only recently admitted their existence to humans, while vampires (who are truly evil) are not out at all. Within the non-human world, they all are living uneasily, and often violently, together.

When I sat down to talk with Patricia, I asked her how she thought of, and kept track of, the rules for her fictional world. For instance, most fae have problems with steel, dating back to the intrusion into their lands by sword-wielding humans; therefore, fae drive big SUVs and trucks, because the roominess allows them more distance from the metal than a smaller car would. She said her mother was a children's librarian, and she grew up reading fairy tales, absorbing the facts of fairy life. Much of what may be confusing or seemingly arbitrary to new readers is actually grounded in works like Katharine Briggs's Encyclopedia of Fairies.

Briggs also discussed the popularity of urban fantasy, saying that the genre made its debut with some very good writers, like Charles de Lint and H.P. Lovecraft, and strong writers have given it a modern twist, authors like Laurell Hamilton, Charlaine Harris, Kelley Armstrong, Kim Harrison and Jim Butcher. She likens this development to the horror genre when it took off with Stephen King, Dean Koontz and Robert McCammon--a small group of writers but very good ones. In Briggs's opinion, readers may think they like certain writers because of the genres, but what they are usually responding to is good writing. She also feels that if booksellers thought more about the quality of writing instead of strict categories, they could get readers to cross types in their quest for a good book.

Still, writing aside, there must be something additional that draws readers to urban fantasy. Could it be sex? According to Briggs, the vampire is the ultimate seducer--the reader thinks, "He's a killer, but loves me. I'm able to tame a wild monster, although he is still a wild monster in defense of me." Werewolves, though, are the ultimate tragic heroes. They were innocent until they were turned with a bite, and now they are always in danger of harming or killing those dearest to them. Wolves are sexy animals--dark, dangerous, and yet pet-able. So why is Mercy a coyote? Briggs explains that by being a were-coyote, Mercy is under-powered relative to the others in her world. This provides the writer the thrilling advantage to put her in jeopardy more easily. Mercy is half Blackfoot, too, so that being coyote and a shapeshifter meshes nicely with Native American trickster traditions. The mix certainly makes Mercy an appealing and explosive package. The same can be said for Bone Crossed.--Marilyn Dahl