Claire Corbett - Author Interview: Setting

Pick one of your favourites among the settings from your published fiction stories or a setting which is an interesting example from your published fiction. What makes this setting one of your favourites or an interesting example from your fiction?

The setting I’d choose is SkyNation, which is an annual celebration/rave party for fliers which forms the climax of WHEN WE HAVE WINGS. This particular SkyNation event is actually held in the sky, above the city. It’s one of my favourites because it’s so imaginative. I had so much fun dreaming up how people would have a three-day festival in the sky and loved describing the environments; the artificial clouds, the netting, the park in the sky, the castle….

What is a setting from a published fiction story by another author you would compare this setting to and why are they similar?

The closest thing I can think of is some of the environments Iain M Banks creates in his Culture novels, such as Look to Windward, because there’s a fabulously imaginative brilliance but also a rigour in the descriptions.

How would you describe the way you introduced this setting to readers of your story?

I introduced it through my character Zeke Fowler, a private investigator, and his journey literally up into the clouds. He’s a non-flier so it’s challenging for him and he’s not in a good mood at the beginning.

How would you describe the integration of characters and setting in this story?

Zeke has to be shown around SkyNation; he’s an outsider, so he discovers it in the way the reader does. We also see the ease of the fliers in these aerial environments; they belong there.

How would you describe the interaction of story and setting in this story?

SkyNation is the climax of the story so story and setting are tightly intertwined. The environment of SkyNation is spectacular but filled with danger for Zeke. The exotic fascination of SkyNation fills the scene with complications and obstacles to Zeke trying to figure out what is really going on.

How much research did you do for the setting of this story, and what did that involve?

I did a great deal of research for the settings throughout WHEN WE HAVE WINGS, especially on slum environments for aspects of the City. I had fliers attending SkyNation in costumes representing the history of flight and did intensive research on Soviet spacesuits, Russian women fighter aces from World War Two and so on.

To what extent would you describe the setting of this story typical or atypical of the settings in your fiction stories?

I think it’s typical in that I love imaginative, spectacular environments that are believable and well-researched.

How do you usually decide on or develop a setting for your fiction stories?

I develop settings that attract me; they don’t have to be beautiful, just dramatic with great potential for story. I like gritty settings too; one of my favourite scenes in WHEN WE HAVE WINGS involves Zeke meeting a contact in a huge City slum. I love the liveliness of that scene.

To what extent do the settings of novels you read have an impact on why you read them, and why?

Settings usually operate as another character in a good novel. They affect you in the same way; they drive the action, as a character does, they have qualities. The heath in Return of the Native, Pemberley in Pride and Prejudice, the Jungle in the Jungle Book, the ship in Voyage of the Dawn Treader. The setting is the sum of the limitations and possibilities confronting the characters.

Author website: www.clairecorbett.com