Author Lisanne Norman is best known for the science fiction novels in her Sholan Alliance series.
But in her first short story collection, The Pharaoh’s Cat (paperback, Kindle), Norman is exploring her fantasy side.
In the following email interview, Norman talks about what influences these stories, as well as how she, “…wanted to show I could do more and with another genre.”
To begin, does The Pharaoh’s Cat have a framing device like Ray Bradbury’s The Illustrated Man or Clive Barkers’ Books Of Blood?
The Pharaoh’s Cat is framed because my late cat Tall came to tell me a story within the story. Also framed are the Mouse stories as my “Honest Thief” goes about finding amulets that will teach her how to use her innate magic. Mouse was based on a Dungeons & Dragons character I created long ago and played with friends in London, when I lived in the U.K., for some 20 years. I am fond of Mouse and would like to expand her search for magic objects and ultimately collect her stories together in one book.
There is a Bonus Mouse story in the limited-edition hardcover, by the way.
With The Pharaoh’s Cat, I was lacking inspiration for the story and a flash of inspiration hit me. Why not make it a tale that my late cat told me from one of his previous nine lives? With that decided, the rest came easily.
As for the Mouse stories, I already had a couple of them finished, and my plan to compile more into a book of her own was already in my mind, so I expanded her adventures and search for this book.
In a similar vein, is there an underlying theme to The Pharaoh’s Cat?
The underlying theme apart from my Mouse story was to introduce readers to my fantasy fiction who were already familiar with my science fiction novels in my Sholan Alliance series, nine novels with humanity meeting feline aliens and the adventures that ensue.
The theme kind of emerged as I wrote, with me wanting to highlight certain aspects of my fantasy fiction. I had great fun expanding the Mouse stories, and also when I wrote “The Wild Hunt.” Al the stories were fun to write, but some a little more than others.
And did you write any new stories for The Pharaoh’s Cat once you settled on the theme?
“By The Book” is the new story and Mouse’s first attempt to get a magical amulet or a book that will teach her how to use her innate magic. She lives on the edges of the Jalnian Space Port where aliens are frequent visitors with their off-world luxury goods. Among them is a man from my Sholan Alliance stories who in the novels went back to Jalna to study their system of magic as he was only used to mental talents like telepathy. Needless to say he and Mouse cross paths.
Is there something else that connects these stories?
The genre connects them. I’m known for my sci-fi novels, but I wanted to show I could do more and with another genre, fantasy. I’m very picky with the fantasy I like, so this anthology was a long time coming, but I believe all the better for that.
You kind of talked a little about this, but are there any stories in The Pharaoh’s Cat connected to your Sholan Alliance series?
Yes, there is one. It is called “The Wild Hunt” where the next Merlin is a surprise to everyone but the incumbent Merlin. I enjoyed writing that one and tied it to the Sholan Alliance novels. I later went on to take Conner, whom I have a great fondness for, to Shola to continue his story.
As you’ve been discussing, the stories in The Pharaoh’s Cat are fantasy while your Sholan Alliance novels are science fiction. Are there any writers who had a big influence on stories in Cat, but were not as big an influence on any of the Sholan Alliance novels?
Wilbur Smith and his Ancient Egyptian books were an influence, as was way back, Rudyard Kipling’s Jungle Book, which was read to us by my first year High School English teacher. She made the story come to life by the way she read it. Wilbur Smith, in my opinion, has done his Egyptian research as much of what he writes about tallies with what my own historical studies and research have also found.
How about non-literary influences? Were any of the stories in influenced by any movies, shows, or games? You mentioned D&D?
Dungeons & Dragons, which I played for over twenty years with friends in London, was definitely a big inspiration due to an excellent Dungeon Master who could spin a grand adventure for me and his wife and other friends.
Hollywood likes turning short stories into movies. Do you think any of the stories in The Pharaoh’s Cat could work as a movie?
“Paintbox” would make a good urban horror movie, I think. It is set in the old Culzean Castle (pronounced Cullain Castle) in Ayrshire, Scotland where I grew up. When I was an Art student at the Glasgow School of Art, all classes went there at different times for a week’s outdoor drawing and painting. We were scheduled to go in January with the biting cold winds and flurries of snow. Culzean Castle belonged to the American Kennedy family and was full of ghosts. There was a phantom piper who was said to play on the battlements when a Kennedy was about to die. As well, there were ghostly footsteps as you walked down through the woodland path to the beach. There was even a white lady who pulled the hair of sleepers in the upstairs girl’s dorm. I experienced that one! So, it was the perfect place for “Paintbox” to be set. And the beautiful castle would make a great setting for a “Paintbox” movie.
Finally, if someone enjoys The Pharaoh’s Cat, what short story collection of someone else’s would you suggest they check out?
Merovingian Nights, which is a shared-world of C.J. Cherryh’s Alliance-Union universe. There are several of these sci-fi anthologies edited by her. Good reading.
Also I am going to cheat and also mention the Friends Of Marion Zimmer Bradley anthologies as there are some really good fantasy tales in them.
