Originally, I had intended to interview both Christopher Golden and Tim Lebbon about their new book The Shadow Men, the final volume of their Lost Cities series. However, when these two talented writers offered to interview themselves I jumped at the opportunity. Here, Golden and Lebbon discuss, among other things, what makes their most recent novel different from the others in the series.
The Shadow Men:
From Beacon Hill to Southie, historic Boston is a town of vibrant neighborhoods knit into a seamless whole. But as Jim Banks and Trix Newcomb learn in a terrifying instant, it is also a city divided—split into three separate versions of itself by a mad magician once tasked with its protection.
Jim is happily married to Jenny, with whom he has a young daughter, Holly. Trix is Jenny’s best friend, practically a member of the family—although she has secretly been in love with Jenny for years. Then Jenny and Holly inexplicably disappear—and leave behind a Boston in which they never existed. Only Jim and Trix remember them. Only Jim and Trix can bring them back.
With the help of Boston’s Oracle, an elderly woman with magical powers, Jim and Trix travel between the fractured cities, for that is where Jenny and Holly have gone. But more is at stake than one family’s happiness. If Jim and Trix should fail, the spell holding the separate Bostons apart will fail too, and the cities will reintegrate in a cataclysmic implosion. Someone, it seems, wants just that. Someone with deadly shadow men at their disposal.
Christopher Golden and Tim Lebbon:
GOLDEN: Hello, Tim. Here we are at what is–for the moment, at least–the last of the Hidden Cities novels. While of course we have a great many other collaborative projects in various forms of development, there’s something sort of apropos about where we’re ending. The first Hidden Cities novel, Mind the Gap, was set in London, which [though you live in Wales] is your stomping grounds, and now, with The Shadow Men, we’re closing the book on the series in Boston, which is mine. We should talk about all of that, but let’s begin with the end. How did it feel to be writing about Boston and–though your experiences here are limited–do you feel an affinity toward the city?
LEBBON: Hi Chris! Well, even though I’ve only been to Boston once, I did quite a bit of research whilst we wrote the book, so I did feel that I knew something about the city. Some of the scenes were set in places I’d been (with you, when we walked around the city one afternoon), so there was a definite connection there. I do wish I’d managed to get in another research trip though … all those great pubs and restaurants!
LEBBON: I’m pretty certain this isn’t the first time you’ve written about Boston. As one of America’s oldest cities, do you think it has a richer atmosphere to delve into when writing fiction? And how did it feel doing all those things to your home city?
GOLDEN: I’ve set a lot of my fiction in Boston or elsewhere in Massachusetts. With the exception of the three years right after college, I’ve lived my whole life within forty minutes’ drive of the city, and as I get older I find myself uninterested in living anywhere else. I suppose for a while it might be nice, but none of those other places are Boston. It may simply be the way everyone feels about their home, but I love Boston. Its mix of Colonial and immigrant history has given it such a unique culture…it’s really unlike anywhere else. Somehow it manages to be a major metropolitan area while maintaining a small town atmosphere. I could talk for hours about the things I love about Boston and its unique flavor. As for the ruinous things we do to it in The Shadow Men, well…you always hurt the ones you love. All four of the books have been about unlocking the secrets of old cities, and the ebb and flow of immigrant influence of Boston is at the root of this one.
GOLDEN: Though the four Hidden Cities novels–Mind the Gap, The Map of Moments, The Chamber of Ten, and The Shadow Men–all share certain elements, in my mind they’re all also very, very different from one another. Do you feel the same, and what do you feel are the biggest things that set The Shadow Men apart from our previous novels?
LEBBON: The link is always there, but I’ve always approached these as stand-alone books. They all have magical elements, but when it came down to story, characters, themes, the only way to write them was as we did — as distinct, individual supernatural thrillers. Saying that, I do hope we can somehow wrap up the background arc as we discussed. One day, perhaps. As for what sets it aside, I think The Shadow Men probably spans genre a little more than the previous three books, touching on science fictional elements with its alternate-world aspect.
LEBBON: So when we were writing the novel––mentioned restaurants, churches, bars–– could you see these places in your mind-eye? Did they have real life locations?
GOLDEN: Many of the places we used were real while others were fictionalized versions of real places. But even with the places we invented to use in our parallel Bostons were…let’s say spun from the same cloth as actual Boston locations. It was important to me that it feel like Boston, even if it was a different version of the city. Though I also think it’s important to let readers know that–like all of the other cities we’ve written about–you don’t have to be from Boston or have ever visited to immerse yourself in the story. That’s the nature of the Hidden Cities. We’re all discovering them together.
