With the recent release of Songs of The Seven Gelflings by author J.M. Lee, known for his writing on the young adult novel series that tie into The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance has allowed Trial By Stone to interview him about the book and much more.
Below is the following interview, enjoy.
PM: Hi Joe, congratulations on the recent book release of Songs of the Seven Gelfling Clans. Before we start I actually wanted to know how’ve you been? I know that you had a very busy year last year with your involvement with Age of Resistance and also with wrapping up your fourth YA novel Flames of The Dark Crystal and you continued on with three additional tie ins, Heroes of The Resistance, Aughra’s Words of Wisdom and now Songs of the Seven Gelfling Clans. How’s it been continuing to delve deep into the mythology of Thra beyond the show and your YA books?
Thanks Philip! It’s been a pleasure as always. Working on the tie-in media was a fun break from the YA novels — the Aughra’s Wisdom book in particular was a delightful shift into something short-form and funny. I also enjoyed working on Songs of the Seven Gelfling Clans as a way to preserve some of my miscellaneous, lingering thoughts and ideas on Gelfling culture that didn’t make it into AOR or the YA novels. Authors don’t always get a chance to do stuff like that, so I was grateful for the opportunity.
PM: How did you get involved with writing the tie ins with the three books? Was it something that JHC approached you or did you pitch them ideas for the books?
The three tie in books I worked on (Aughra’s Wisdom of Thra, Heroes of the Resistance, and Songs of the Seven Gelfling Clans) came from Penguin, who approached me to ask if I was interested in writing them. We worked out more of the details later as we got into conversations with Henson.
PM: Was a lot of the writing you wrote for Songs of the Seven Gelfling Clans based on notes that you always had in mind during writing the YA books about all the different Gelfling clans that you were able to incorporate into the book that you couldn’t fit into the YA books? It was one of the aspects I loved about YA books and it seems in this book you get to expand much more.
Yes. There were a lot of concepts that I either introduced in passing but didn’t have a chance to get into in the books — or that didn’t make it into the final draft at all — that I was able to unpack in a more appropriate format in Songs of the Seven Gelfling Clans. When world building for a novel, you have to have all this information figured out in your head, but sometimes only the tip of that iceberg makes it into the manuscript. The Gelfling Clans book provided a format where I could dump a ton of lore and structurally it could still make sense.
PM: When the book was first announced, it was mentioned in the descriptions that the book was going to be written from a song teller perspective, my first thoughts running through my head was that it could be either Kylan or even Raunip. Were those two characters considered as part of the POV in telling the story about the different clans or did you always envision a brand new character instead for this book?
We always wanted the narrator to be Gelfling, so Raunip was never a candidate. But in some of the early concepts, I was considering an adult Kylan as a narrator, with the idea that this was a book he wrote after the end of Flames when he stays behind to record all of the songs of the Gelfling to pass on to their descendants. However, we ended up going with a Song Teller from early in the Age of Division.
Additionally, in considering the narrator, I decided I wanted to have a female Song Teller since the two others that we’ve seen so far (Kylan and Gyr) are both male.
PM: Absolutely, of course fans myself included would want to know how Thriya is pronounced?
Three-ya.
PM: What can you tell us about Thriya and what will we learn about her throughout the book?
Thriya is a Stonewood Song Teller who heads out on a quest to visit all seven of the Gelfling Clans and catalogue their songs. She feels driven to do this by a higher power (Thra?). Although it isn’t really a character driven book, Thriya does learn and change through her travels as she comes to understand that the Gelfling Clans may be more similar than they think.
PM: How many years (or trine for that matter) does this book take place before the events of The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance?
I’m not specific about this in the book and I don’t have an exact time frame in mind. However, some contextual clues can be taken from the names of the Maudra that are mentioned.
PM: It was great to see Jarra-Jen getting a mention in this book as you’ve done so from your YA books. The song about him and the Fizzgig King was referenced in Shadows of The Dark Crystal right?
Yes. Several of the songs from the YA novels are referenced in this book, as well as dozens of other easter eggs for the various Dark Crystal publications and media. It wouldn’t be right to write a book of Gelfling songs and not mention Jarra-Jen or Gyr!
PM: Hahaha indeed, I’d love it if there was a novel all about those two. Legends of Jarran-Jen and also whether the relationship between Gyr and Kel grew after the events of the second Great Conjunction. I noticed that in to Spriton section that the Auyeral symbol was present, as if its an established symbol from the Spriton clan. Is there any history about the use of the symbol in association with the Spriton clan? Did they created the symbol? The Sifan’s only had knowledge about the symbol right and no one else right?
None of the Gelfling invented the Aureyal; it’s more of a manifestation, in my interpretation. I imagine it appears in many Gelfling craft — especially magic craft — subconsciously and inadvertently. Though of course the Sifa would say they are the only ones with knowledge of it 🙂
PM: Hahaha yes, end, begin… all the same. Was there any other nods or mentions from other Dark Crystal canon that you were able to greatly expand with the book?
Like I mentioned, there are dozens of easter eggs in this book for fans of all investment levels. You will find nods to Aughra, Raunip, Creation Myths, the manga, the comics, the show, and even Kira and Jen if you look hard enough. Personally, I loved having the opportunity to finish some of my thoughts about Gelfling culture and language that I started or wanted to insert into the novels but didn’t have the chance for whatever reason.
PM: I’ve just finished reading about Stone-in-the-wood and Spriton clans and have been enjoying it so far. Thank you so much for your time in answering our questions about the book and we hope to see more Dark Crystal stories from you, where can fans find your work and what’s your next book release?
Yes — and thanks for the opportunity to interview by text during this busy time! My next book is THE NIGHTLAND EXPRESS, an historical fantasy focusing on the Pony Express, which will appeal to anyone with an interest in subverting American history and magical spirits causing problems/saving the world. It’s coming spring 2020 from Erewhon Books. You can find out more info on that and my other work at www.joeyverse.com