Author of Good Morning, Magpie, Editor's Choice winner in AuthorStand's First Annual Novel Contest, Zachary Gilpin tells us how the story came to life, who he is as a writer and what comes next, both in the Magpie world and in his upcoming stories! Note: Spoilers abound, so read Good Morning, Magpie first if that sort of thing bothers you!

You've said that a song inspired the concept for “Good Morning, Magpie.” After that initial prompting where did your plot ideas come from?

Honestly, I can't say that there is any one place where my ideas came from. I think, when it comes to storytelling, there may be one or two prime movers -a scene, a character, a song- but after you pass that initial point of inspiration, all you're doing as an author is drawing from the pool of ideas that you amass from every day life. There was a hollow tree behind my elementary school, and I used to visit that tree all the time. It was black on the inside, and supposedly Native Americans used it as a place for meditation.  I knew, somehow, that it had everything to do with Magpie. And for every example like that you can pin down, there are a dozen that happen in the moment that you forget about.


You have quite a few time-jumps in "Good Morning, Magpie." What mechanism did you use to keep them straight during the writing process?

As far as I go, the time jumps were all very clear and very necessary. I knew who these characters were and why we needed to see them at this particular moment in time, so it was very easy for me to keep them straight in my head. As far as queuing the reader, I spent a lot of time thinking about it, and I realized that Crow and Swan, their names are assumed. They would not go by those names in earlier lives. So, I used Part 2 to set up the idea that Crow was just “the magpie.” From there it was a matter of characterization, and using previously mentioned things to jolt the reader into realizing that they are no longer in the present.

 
You seem to know your characters very well. How long ago did you invent them and what process did you go through to make them real?

I literally made everything up as I went along. That seems like an incredibly underwhelming answer, but it's the truth. In the past, when I outlined stories, I would lose my will for writing them because there was no surprise left. That's almost what happened with Part 3 of Magpie, actually, because it was such a complicated aspect of the story that it required so much in the way of planning before I could really dive into it.


Which character in "Magpie" do you think you most identify with, and why?
        
My favorite character, hands down, is Wesley. After I knew who he was, I never wanted him to leave. Going into Part 2, I had every intention of setting him up as the third wheel. He would go with Swan and Crow to the Tower of the Watchers and be another source for snark. I was shocked when he died. I think it's evident in the writing, actually, that I didn't plan for him to die, because it just kind of happens. I was sad that he died but I recognized its importance. Without his death, Crow cannot get to the point where he's willing to accept Everest's wings.
        
As far as the character I actually identify with the most, though, I'd have to say it's probably Crow. At the time I was first writing this story, I felt entirely helpless in my life, like I was both running towards my future and away from it at the same time.
 

Is the story done, or is there more to tell about the world you've created? If so, where might the story go?
        
Crow and Swan's story is, more or less, done. There are four short stories I am in the process of writing which take up the perspectives of four side characters that I feel like didn't get enough face time. They are, in this order, Adam's Story, Wesley's Story, Swan's Story, and The Raven's Story.
        
Also, however, there is a pseudo-sequel in the works. It takes place in the same universe… In Part 2 Everest tells Crow that Wesley had a wolf friend that had lost her pups and he helped her find them. This book is the story of that wolf.


Your fellow AuthorStand members have apparently enjoyed "Good Morning, Magpie” as much as our judges.  Personally, is it your favorite thing you've written? If so, why?

This is a trick question in a lot of ways because this is the only work of sizable merit that I've really finished, so I kind of have to say this is my favorite one. I mean, in terms of real-world benefit to me, this story has done so much. Everyone seems to love it, more importantly people whose job it is to know what good writing looks like say it's decent enough, and for someone who got their start writing fanfics and serial flash fiction on the internet, that is a tremendous ego boost.

But there's another side of it, and I hope it doesn't come through in the story. I kind of hate this book. I love it, I really do, but it just got so weird, even I had a hard time understanding it for a while (this was, of course, when I was not writing. When I was writing, it all made perfect sense). When talking about the book to unknowing acquaintances, I've taken to calling Magpie “Talking Birds and the End of the World,” because what the story is about is so difficult to outline in a hundred words or less.
 

What significant changes were made between Magpie as a novella and the completed novel?  Why were they necessary?

Well, I knew fairly early on in writing Part 2 that this was not the end of the story. I did think, however, that it was very close to the end. Part 3 was going to finish it off. I had a deadline with the contest and I wasn't entirely sure where to go with Part 3, so I slapped a TO BE CONTINUED on the end and prayed that it would fly with the judges. Even though I knew it wasn't the end of the story, I also knew that it had to have a contained arc. So you have Crow coming into his own and accepting his role, taking responsibility. Wesley's death really helped to fuel that.

Part 3 became so complicated at a certain point that I realized I could not resolve the time-travel storyline and the main conflict all at the same time. And all the while I had the image of the hollow tree haunting me, even though I had no idea what it was. When it was all finished, I realized that my assumptions about the story were so completely off, and that I had a lot of work ahead of me in terms of making the whole thing fit together in any way. And actually, surprisingly little needed to be changed, which only fuels my theory that the story knows everything about itself long before you have even the slightest clue.
 

How do you write? In hours-long marathon sessions or in snippets as you can find time?

Parts 1 and 2 were written each in about 15-page spurts, and if you pay attention you can tell where those spurts ended because the narrative stops and there's a lot of stringing chapters that exist just to get us from point A to point B. I wrote half of Part 3 and then realized it simply did not work, and then finally just threw it out and wrote it again. The last half of Part 3, all of Part 4, and the Epilogue were all written in one sitting. If I ever get successful, that's going to be one of the first questions I ask real writers -do you become an emotional infant facing the cascading meaninglessness of the universe when you write? Because that's what I do.


When you're not writing, who/what are you reading?

Right now I am reading Kitty's Greatest Hits by Carrie Vaughn. I love reading them in public because they look like terrible trashy romance novels, and that couldn't be farther from the truth. The Kitty books are probably my favorite werewolf books just because of the way they deal with the subject matter.

I love stories that take boring or overused ideas and make them interesting again. I recently read Boy Meets Boy, which is literally a book that takes the formula of “boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl back” and puts it in a homosexual context. But because of the way that book plays with gender roles and how deftly it navigates through what would have been, for me, an impossible subject, it's a brilliant book.

I read a lot of comics as well, and that's a medium I would love to get into some day. I just got back my copy of Gaiman's ten-volume Sandman comic, and I can't wait to read it through again. There's a bit in Part 2 that is a direct allusion to Sandman, and I'll leave it a mystery for anyone who's read those books to find.


What project are you working on next?
 
I have two books vying for my attention right now. One of them is a story that I have been working on for nearly seven years, that I am convinced will be my masterpiece if I can translate what I have in my head to the page.

The other book is a far newer story, and it's one that I am afraid to write for completely different reasons. It's set in the real world, and involves these three brothers meeting back up after years of distance to talk about how their adoptive father taught them that the only way to maintain karmic balance in the universe was to brutally slaughter innocent people. It's an incredibly sad and painful story that I know will just come right out when I start it, but this is another case of, what could people possibly think of me when they read it? What kind of sick person comes up with that story? But it's there, and I have to write it eventually.
       

For more information on Zachary Gilpin, or to send him a message, please visit his profile page here.