Julie E. Czerneda's "A Change of Place"

Julie E. Czerneda is a biologist and writer whose science fiction has received international acclaim, awards, and best-selling status. She is the author of the popular "Species Imperative" trilogy, the "Web Shifters" series, the "Trade Pact Universe" trilogy and her new "Stratification" novels. She was a finalist for the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer. Her stand-alone novel, In the Company of Others, won Canada's Prix Aurora Award and was a finalist for the Philip K. Dick Award for Distinguished SF.

Here Czerneda shares some ideas for an epic series adaptation of her new novel, A Change of Place:

A Change of Place continues from two previous books in my Night’s Edge fantasy series. The characters are the same, though more arrive, the focal setting—Marrowdell—is always present, but in each book, we visit dramatically different places and problems. It’s, well, big.

Making it not so much a movie prospect and very much an epic series.

Just typing that makes me tremble, a little. Wouldn’t that be something?

Oh I didn’t always think that way. When I first thought of Marrowdell, my dragon, my characters and the entire scope and tone of the story it was in response to what I wasn’t finding. I wanted fantasy where the magic was wondrous and wild. With families that were whole and loving and coped together with their troubles. Characters who weren’t victims but happy or hoping to be, engaged with their surroundings and each other. There’s a mill. Farms. Dancing.

A story that feels like warm cocoa and a blanket on a chilly day, with gleeful ahas!

In other words, no grim. No gore. Okay, maybe a touch of gore and smidge of risk, but countered by a great deal more pie and joy and laughter.

As there wasn’t anything like this in movie or series form—and so much the opposite ::coughs Game of Thrones ::coughs:: as I wrote I never thought a visual edition of my fantasy would be possible. After all, it has moments like this:

As the light of this world faded, the light of the Verge reached the bay, or rather, shone up through it to reveal treasure below.

Mimrol.

The magic that flowed as rivers and filled lakes in the Verge did the same here, in the depths beneath the dark water, its silver like some fantastic etching come to life. In Channen, the stuff had fallen as rain, greedily snapped up by the turtle-like nyim—what wasn’t collected by those who knew its value.

Suggesting she did, Nonny stood, calmly handed Jenn her cup, then shrugged off her rags. Beneath she wore nothing but a woven belt lined with compartments.

With one smooth motion, she stepped up on the gunnel and dove.

Now, however, we’ve a wealth of amazing film and shows with incredible special effects to ably portray beautiful moments, like this, as well as all those action things (which I adore as well, don’t get me wrong). Most recently, the Rings of Power on Prime, season 2 directed by Charlotte Brändström, comes to mind*. Watching lets me truly imagine Marrowdell coming to life on a screen at last, which would be epic--many of my family and friends are movie folks, not so much readers.

And I’d like it too.

*Confession: like every author I know who watched Lord of the Rings I dreamed Peter Jackson would “discover” my book and make it a spectacular umpteen hour movie but--at the time I was writing Species Imperative, a hard sf epic, and I didn’t think it his sort of thing. Peter? Maybe now?

Visit Julie E. Czerneda's website.

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