I’m delighted today to interview Christine Emmert, author of Lilith and The Nun’s Dragon.

Christine Emmert joins a group of contemporary fantasy authors who engage with mythic or religious themes. While writers like Holly McDowell (King Solomon’s Wives) apply elements from religious narratives to a range of historical contexts, others, like The Zombie Bible‘s Stant Litore, place their fantasy novels entirely in ancient times. With her historical novella The Nun’s Dragon and her contemporary story Lilith, Christine Emmert uses religion and myth to explore both past and present.

1. Hi Christine, thanks so much for taking the time to share your thoughts with us. First of all, what was your inspiration for The Nun’s Dragon?

The medieval times have always fascinated me with their emphasis on sticking within firm lines of belief and the myriad of threats the church insisted were there to tempt us should we step beyond those boundaries. The dragon is such a temptation. But I must admit my first impulse was to write a murder mystery about a nun who could not stay within the four walls of her convent. What would make her leave? I had the first line of the novel before the dragon became a possibility. Often I have just the first or last line of a piece. What follows is the alchemy of conscious and subconscious that mix in my writing room with me. Once the dragon was introduced the story widened beyond a mere murder mystery. I took him not as a symbol of the devil as the priest would, but rather as a vehicle of questioning the realities the church told were there for us to accept.

2. The figure of Lilith has long held a fascination for fantasy authors, being referenced by C.S. Lewis and receiving an extended treatment by Victorian novelist George MacDonald. What drew you to Lilith’s story?

Lilith has become a symbol for so many different stances in women. Many groups claim her. I found her intriguing because she initially rejected where she was to be placed by man and God. All women know Lilith as part of themselves, their rival, their advocate, and that part of them that rejects the common roles of domesticity this society places them in. In a sense she sought to break free of cosmic law. I wanted a modern woman to challenge both Lilith and herself about what was expected of her.

3. Your voice as an author reminds me very much of A.S. Byatt, whose work often brings together elements of literary fiction, mythology, and fantasy. Which writers have particularly influenced or inspired you as an author?

I do love A.S. Byatt, which you mentioned. And also Stant Litore, who has been a recent mentor to my work. His Zombie Bibles is an amazing way of looking at traditional stories of our belief systems and turning them on their head. Also I find Kathryn Harrison a source of inspiration because she is not afraid to address the dark side. She never pulls back.

I have traditional inspirations such as Shakespeare who gave language a music that makes one listen with a more attentive ear, and Virginia Woolf who always gave an eccentric eye to the attitudes of her culture. George Eliot is my long life favorite. She saw the cracks in the paintings that others admired. My friend, Stephanie Cowell, writes quite different pieces than I do. Or could. But she has been my confidante over a long life. I’ve known her since we were 15 and already drunk on words.

4. Chronological sequence plays an important role in The Nun’s Dragon, as the novella begins with Sister Agnes Dei’s apparent suicide and then shifts back and forth in time. Why did you structure this story the way you did?

I don’t like people to know immediately where they are. Or when things happen. It is part of my excitement in seeing a world out of kilter. Our own lives seem to have a straight arrow of time approach, but often we are tossed back by memory or circumstance into past scenes. I find the putting together of the puzzle of Time itself is part of the challenge of a writer.

This jigsaw puzzle approach to stories is especially important in The Nun’s Dragon where no one is sure (possibly even at the end) why events have propelled the characters to their final moments.

5. In The Nun’s Dragon, Agnes Dei reflects on the idea of “a flawed universe that did not welcome its own creations.” To be created and then to be denied or rejected by the creator is a theme that also runs through the mythic story of Lilith (not to mention Frankenstein!). What responsibility does the creator have to its creation? What is the nature of a flawed universe?

I have often thought the story of Eden a story of a parent who did not love the child. I am a mother and cannot imagine rejecting my own child, but I have known many parents who do. There is a nurturing gene that some just don’t have. How we create what we do and why we create it is often a question even we cannot solve. When we apply this confusion to our own creation there is pain and judgment involved. The Church intended to address this. However, it was done by giving the created the guilt, not the Creator. I often think we are just trying to get back into the garden to ask the question first-hand. Once back in the garden there is the possibility of no one to answer our question about why the universe is flawed. Perhaps it is just a primal memory of a garden without a gardener to shape it.

6. We’re looking forward to your future stories. What’s next on the horizon for you?

I went to Thailand in February. I had not thought to write of anything I saw there in more than a few poems, but the first line of a new story came into my head when I was in Bangkok as well as the sight of a very small monk I saw walking through the China Town there. So I began to work on this idea when I got back. It is being told from two diverse points of view, which come together in the end to change to path the two people want to take. There is the use of Buddhist myth in the tale. Obviously in this story there is no Garden of Eden to long for. The Buddhist heart is very different in its quest. In Buddhism the Garden of Eden would never be more than an illusion in keeping with the concept that all is transitory.

7. What else would you like to say about your writing?

I began my writing life as a playwright. I have worked in theatre for over fifty years, also as an actress, director, and educator. I enjoy high drama and a good story. My blog is entitled ““Writing Across the Genres.” I don’t think one should limit one’s self to one form of writing. I have had poems, plays, academic pieces, op-eds, and some short fiction in my bag of tricks. One type of writing reflects on the other. We are all of us renaissance women, trying to show how wide we are, not how narrow. People find it simpler to narrow us down.

Thanks very much to Christine Emmert for sharing her insights today. Her new novel The Nun’s Dragon is available now. To learn more about Christine, visit her blog at http://christineemmert.wordpress.com/