Natalie Zina Walschots on good bosses and bad guys
"Would I be a henchperson if I got really good physio and extended dental? I might. I know this about myself now."
Natalie Zina Walschots spoke with us about her novel Hench, which was nominated for CBC Canada Reads. We learned about her beginnings in writing and world-building -- as well as her interest in supervillains -- and why the existence of fan fiction based in the Hench universe represents the ultimate level of authorial success.
We learned about some of the fantastical worlds Natalie enjoyed exploring as a young reader "often for sheer escapism," as well as the writers she drew inspiration from while starting out as a writer herself, and as a lifelong student of supervillainy:
- Robert O'Brien's Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH and Z for Zachariah
- High fantasy including J. R. R. Tolkien, but also Shannara, Dragonlance, and "anything with a wizard holding an orb on the cover" or "a skeleton holding a sword"
- Christian Bök, Karen Solie, bp Nichol, and other writers "doing super weird things with language and the structural materiality of language..."
- Soon I Will Be Invincible "was the first book I read from the perspective of a supervillain."
- "Paradise Lost is really important to me ... the relationship between Satan the adversary to the world informs the way I write villains."
- Neil Gaiman's Sandman, where "a character who's a villain in one context becomes the protagonist in another."
- Vicious by V E Schwab
- Erin Morgenstern's The Night Circus and various writings of Catherynne M. Valente for their "messed up fairy tale feel."
Hench
Anna does boring things for terrible people because even criminals need office help and she needs a job. Working for a monster lurking beneath the surface of the world isn’t glamorous. But is it really worse than working for an oil conglomerate or an insurance company? In this economy?
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