November, 2009Rob Rogers said...Good morning.
Evil Editor said...Morning.
sylvia said...Good afternoon! I should stay at the start this time that I bought the UK edition of the book (although it wasn't "translated" and I don't think there would be any real difference).
Rob Rogers said...Hmm. I didn't even think there was a separate UK edition. I thought that the same version was sold over there.
Evil Editor said...No, in the UK edition the Robber Baron is the Robber Duke.
Rob Rogers said...Evil Editor, you're joking, right?
sylvia said...Haha, no, it did say Robber Baron. The cover looks the same actually so I guess there is no difference at all - although the synopsis on Amazon.com is more useful! The description on amazon.co.uk just says
In Devil's Cape, a neighbor of New Orleans and a city known as "Pirate Town" because of the violence, corruption, and darkness that marked its history, a horrific crime gives rise to a new breed of vigilantes, who set in motion a series of events that will transform Devil's Cape forever--but not necessarily for the better. A first novel. Original.
So I was a bit surprised when I started reading and realised it wasn't your standard "crime in everyday America" story.
stacy said...I imagine editors changed some things to fit British slang (for lack of a better term).
Rob Rogers said...Devil's Cape is being translated into German, though. I don't have a set publication date or other interesting tidbits yet, though. (I'm interested to see the cover.) Other than getting paid for it, I haven't been involved in the translation process at all.
sylvia said...Heh, amazon.de describes the novel as Heroes with a Southern Gothic edge (but no word yet of the German version)
Evil Editor said...So, I don't think we've done a first novel before. Is it the first you wrote or just the first you published?
Rob Rogers said...It's the first novel I finished. I'd worked on one in college and graduate school: a murder mystery. But then life intervened and I never finished it. Wizards had its open call for submissions for what became its new (short-lived) Discoveries line and the submission called for three chapters and an outline. I didn't finish the book until Wizards had expressed strong interest in it, which was certainly a huge motivator.
Robin S. said...Rob, Thanks for visiting with us! That DOES make for a great motivator - having someone liking your pages, and wanting more. How long did it take you to finish the novel?
Rob Rogers said...Robin, it was about eight months of heavy writing and editing spread out over three years.
Dave F. said...I went looking for your website and after I eliminated Rob Rogers the Political Cartoonist of the Pittsburgh Post Gazette (Who I've met and who isn't you). I am wondering if there is another Devil's Cape book in the works?
Rob Rogers said...I began a Devil's Cape sequel, but with Discoveries folding, it's very difficult to convince a publisher to handle the sequel for a book that came from another publisher. So I'm working on another book with some similarities (superhero world, lots of setting-building), but set in Texas.
Evil Editor said...I read somewhere that you have an agent. Did you get one after the book was published, or after it was accepted?
Rob Rogers said...I got an agent after I had an offer letter from Wizards.
sylvia said...Discoveries is Wizards of the Coast, right? I didn't know they did novels that weren't based on D&D, to be honest. How did you hook up with them?
Rob Rogers said...Discoveries was a trial imprint. The editors at Wizards said something like, "You know, if J.K. Rowling walked in with Harry Potter, we couldn't publish it because we're only set up to publish books tied to our games, even though we have NYT bestsellers and a distribution model in place." So they tried this new idea to them (TSR had done something similar years earlier) with the Discoveries imprint.
But fairly quickly on, there was a management shift and Wizards decided to shift its focus back only to gaming properties. Devil's Cape was the fourth and last book from the imprint. Which is a bummer, because I loved working with Wizards.
sylvia said...Oh, that's harsh! It's easy to think once an author has an offer, everything is gravy but there's still so much that can go wrong, isn't there. It's a shame too, because people who read WotC books do like other genres and it seems like a lot fantasy novels - including obviously your superheroes - make a good fit for pushing to a similar audience.
Dave F. said...I like that the characters act so normal. They have special powers but they are not truly heroic or even altruistic. Even The twins are not completely good. Even the gal who takes up for her father. Even her Uncle the little guy. None of them are like the standard superhero Superman (forget Batman, he's too conflicted. Think JLA or Fantastic Four. Think Morpheus the King of Dreams in Sandman). When did you decide to make them all, flawed? It's so nice to see the flaws.
Evil Editor said...Yes, Dave I was wondering if it would feel like a comic book turned into a novel, or if the idea of superheroes would seem ridiculous in a novel. But it worked for me.
Rob Rogers said...Dave, my goal was just to make them feel like real people who happened to have superpowers. I do think that they're heroic in many ways, but the humanity was the most important thing to me.
sylvia said...I like that the characters act so normal. They have special powers but they are not truly heroic or even altruistic. Yes, this really worked and helped me to enjoy the story. I was a bit nervous when I started that it would be good guys vs the bad guys in a one-dimensional way but that wasn't true at all. I also really liked the twins effectively changing sides.
stacy said...Any plans to actually turn this novel into a graphic novel or a comic book series?
Rob Rogers said...Stacy, I'd love to see a graphic novel or comic series of Devil's Cape, but it's not something I've actively pursued. I think that part of what sets Devil's Cape apart from standard comic books (which I love) is the medium itself. Could we do an adaptation in comic book form that still felt different from other comic books on the shelves? Maybe. I certainly like to think that it would be a good comic book. But it hasn't happened yet and I'm concentrating on my prose for now.
Dave F. said...These people, the characters, not the little people, the common ones who toil lives of everyday drudgery, the other people. Why are the characters all set away and above and aside the common folk? Is it just their powers? Can it be that the common folk are merely ordinary and the specially endowed rise to the top of the society in Devil's Cape by some unseen design?
Rob Rogers said...Dave, I'm not sure I'm totally following this one. I think that in some ways, the superpowers translate into real-world power that helps the people advance somehow. But really, I didn't make conscious choices that way. Even the people with superpowers aren't necessarily the most influential in the world or the city (with the exception of the Robber Baron, who has had time to step into that role).
Jason is a reporter, but not the top reporter in the city, by any means. Cain is a respected psychiatrist, but no more so than other doctors. Kate is very smart and accomplished, but most of the money she uses comes from the advantage of the treasure her father found. Etc. Not sure if I'm addressing what you're asking exactly.
Robin S. said...The book read very cross-genre to me. I was also expecting a traditional mystery, or thriller, and it turned out to be more complex a route as a reader, and I liked that.
sylvia said...This was exactly my experience. I was taken aback when I started reading but pleasantly so as it quickly became clear that the heroes had depth and that there was a thread of humour throughout the story.
Robin S. said...The coast of Louisiana really does lend itself to this kind of foreboding, twisted-logic kind of place, so I enjoyed that as well.
stacy said...I've actually been along the coast of Louisiana and Mississippi, and there was a certain "time has stopped" quality to it.
sylvia said...I agree - and the entire concept of a city founded upon piracy really worked for me.
stacy said...I could totally see this story happening in Louisiana. I too loved the idea of a city being founded upon piracy.
sylvia said...Although I'm intrigued as to what the author is going to do with Texas!
Robin S. said...Good question, Sylvia. Rob, Why can't you keep the Louisiana setting? It's perfect; otherworldly.
Rob Rogers said...Thanks for the kind comments, everyone. Robin, Stacy: Choosing Louisiana gave this a lot of flavor for me. The initial choice was simply because I had the idea of St. Diable and wanted somewhere for him to have a coastal port. But the rest just kind of fell in line. I don't know Louisiana all that well, so I did a lot of research and had some help in that regard from people who do know it.
Robin S. said...I'm famiiar with Texas; been there quite a bit, but I lived in Louisiana (central part) for several years and it can be, in places, 'off the grid' - people and places.
stacy said...I'm only familiar with the Dallas area, where I lived for three and a half years. Sadly, I never got into the south or west side of Texas, or the rural areas. I'm afraid I found many stereotypes about Texas to be true.
Evil Editor said...My favorite line in the book:
Hector Hell entered the room not ten feet from Julian. He was wearing that garish costume. Julian wondered if he'd been walking around in it all evening or if he'd taken the time to put it on when the alarm sounded. He wasn't sure which possibility was more pathetic.
sylvia said...EE: that's a great excerpt. It was exactly that - the recurring refrain of humanity and less-than-super super heroes - which I really enjoyed.
Dave F. said...The story of the anointing with hairs from the Golden Fleece implies that a person can acquire superpowers. However, some of the characters were born that way. Did you work this duality during the writing or when planning the novel?
Rob Rogers said...There are some superhero worlds out there where there's sort of a shared origin for everyone with superpowers. Wild Cards is like that, and I think Heroes, too. I consciously wanted something that reflected comic book universes like DC or Marvel. They're messy, filled with all sorts of varied explanations for superpowers. You've got aliens working with martial arts gurus working with super-scientists and mutants. I wanted that same kind of vibe. So while I did give the Cirque d' Obscurite a shared origin, I created different backgrounds (technology, mythology, magic) for the three main heroes of the book.
Evil Editor said...It seems to me that Devil's Cape, the place, is the main character. Is there a specific character who, as you were writing, you considered the main character?
Rob Rogers said...No, I think you've nailed it that the setting is in many ways a main character of the book. Beyond that, I saw it as a shared spotlight for Jason, Cain, and Kate. The Texas-based book I'm working on has a single main character, but with a supporting cast. It's got superheroes, of course, as well as aliens, cowboys, and a sort of tear in the space-time continuum hanging in the sky over the city.
stacy said...That would work in a Dallas setting. I speak from personal experience.
Rob Rogers said...Well, I live next to Dallas, now, so it's easier to get a feel for it. I'm actually playing around with an altered version of Fort Worth, combining real Fort Worth history with my own. I still plan to write the sequel to Devil's Cape someday and to see Devil's Cape back in print. I couldn't see writing another novel in the same city without involving the protagonists of the first book, though, and tying things back to the first book, and that would be a hard sell to publish. So I have to get a relationship built up with another publisher and see if that opportunity can come.
Meanwhile, I'm putting a lot of the same care into the city I'm creating/adapting for my new book, so I hope anyone who likes Devil's Cape will like it, too.
Dave F. said...I love that ending. I mean to say that we all know that there is going to be a confrontation with the bad guys but the twist is like icing on a cake. I thought that might be Robber Baron's superpower in the middle of the book but I let it go. I looked for him in the battle and never found him. That saved the story from being just another action festival that ends in boom, bang, pow and the death of the bad guys. It's the full circle from the first pages to the last that is just so neat -- a double climax. Exquisitely satisfying. Did you know that was the end when you wrote the beginning? OR did you write the end before you wrote that first chapter with the fire at the restaurant?
sylvia said...I agree. I expected a show-down but quite honestly, I'd lost track of the Robber Baron, he'd become part of the backdrop. So the refocusing the story and the plot back onto him really worked for me.
Robin S. said...I'm interested in Dave's comment as well. Did you know the ending ahead of time, or did it develop as you wrote?
Rob Rogers said...Thank you very much. I think I knew the twist about the Robber Baron all along, and was definitely setting it up in that chapter at the beginning with him and Costas. The ending itself, though, I think I wrote at some point when I was about halfway through the book. I usually write more or less sequentially (although I went back and added a lot of content in the revision process). But that ending just kind of came into my head one day and I couldn't concentrate on writing anything else until I got it down.
sylvia said...I've found that it is really hard to write a simple pitch for a story that doesn't follow a single person and their conflict. If it's not too cheeky to ask - how did you query Devil's Cape? Did you choose a "lead hero" and simplify the conflict for the sake of a quick description?
Rob Rogers said...The initial proposal was three chapters and an outline of the whole book (which I ended up departing from), but they were much, much longer chapters than the ones in the finished novel. The first three chapters included, I think, three scenes each with each of the main protagonists. For the twins, you had the baptism, the death of the police officer, the fight with Troll, and the breakfast scene at Pericles' restaurant. For Cain you had the scene where he attacked Jazz, the scene where Salazar comes to his apartment, and then the scene where he begins to "hallucinate" and drives to Holingbroke. With Kate, you had her father's funeral, her discovery of her father's identity, and the arrival in the city.
In the pitch, it was called "The City of St. Diable," by the way, and St. Diable was the name of the city. The Devil's Cape name came much later. Wizards didn't like the name St. Diable and I ended up creating the Devil's Cape name to tie to St. Diable the pirate, to piracy in general, and also to kind of hint at superhero capes. I'm glad we changed the name.
Robin S. said...I also like the name Devil's Cape. Before I got into the book enough to know what was going on, I expected it to be about a serial killer - or that the name Devil's Cape was a geographical cape - so the name and the several ways it could stand for something was a good thing.
sylvia said...That worked really well, another "full circle" feel to the story. Changing the name worked out really well, I think.
Evil Editor said...I liked that the storm raiders got killed by the cirque. That they didn't just fly in and clean up the town. Invincible superheroes are less interesting.
Rob Rogers said...I think that a trick to writing people with superpowers is that they have to have some kind of limitations, or they're just very difficult to relate to.
Evil Editor said...On the other hand, some of them had interesting powers I would have liked to see in action more.
Blogger Rob Rogers said...Well, I'd rather leave you wanting more than less. But I could see myself writing stories about them someday.
Evil Editor said...I was specifically thinking of the woman who could control chance. Forgot her name. She was the one they had to kill first, I think. Whoever they killed first, it was brilliant of them to realize they had to.
Rob Rogers said...Ah, Miss Chance. Yes, she could be fun to write about. Not all that different in concept from the character of the Scarlet Witch, but of course if I wrote about her in any detail I'd make sure that they were distinct. Not that you saw much, but their personalities were quite different, anyway. It's just the power set that's similar.
Not sure if you're all aware, but I recently had a Devil's Cape short story published in an anthology called The Improbable Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. It features Holmes and Watson visiting the city in 1894 and features some background details (like the Holingbroke brothers) that I'd developed in the book, as well as an incarnation of St. Diable. It was great fun to write.
sylvia said...Oh, that sounds really intriguing! I shall look out for the story. And what a great way to flesh out your backstory! Creating earlier stories that fit into the world...
Rob Rogers said...Thank you! My new book has a prologue set in 1947, featuring a couple of Golden Age superheroes (ones who were around from the dawn of superheroes in the late 30s and early 40s and who fought in World War II). That was great fun. It ties in with the Roswell aliens and has them diverted to Texas for various reasons. Fun stuff to write.
Robin S. said...Interesting about the short story - I was gonna ask if you wrote short stories as well. Great idea to do that. Is it the kind of story you could build on for a kind of 'previous history' novel to Devil's Cape?
Rob Rogers said...Thank you. I could see myself writing some previous history stories, definitely. Not sure if I'd do a Devil's Cape novel set in the past, because part of the shtick for me is that the heroes have never won in the city, at least not major victories. So it would maybe be hard to handle a whole novel set in the past where the heroes are doomed to fail. But that's just my gut reaction on a Sunday morning. Certainly I had fun playing with the historical aspects and you never know...
Robin S. said...I read this novel having no background in comics or fantasy, other than books we've read here, and reading Harry Potter from the time my kids were in grade school and I read it to them (now I like them, too).
I'm impressed with your world-building. How you blended history and geography that I know, with what I don't know. Did you have this world built up in your head, you know, already haveit imagined out as a kind of interesting fantasy/daydream kind of thing, and then decide to put pen to paper?
Rob Rogers said...It was very much something I made up along the way. I had some basic ideas, but they got hashed out a lot during the writing process.
Those little chapter intros I did were a great tool for me in that regard. It was easier to add exposition or background material without having to have it clunk into the narrative flow. Of course, they also became a bugbear for me because there were maybe like 20 or 25 of them that I really needed/wanted in there for background purposes, and then I was stuck coming up with ideas for all the other ones. Sometimes those were the last things I wrote.
sylvia said...I did think that while I was reading - that many of them were important but that it meant you had to commit to having a quote for every chapter.
Rob Rogers said...I'd read Robert Asprin complain about the same thing with his Myth Adventures novels. Of course, his quotes were there to be funny, and that's a whole additional challenge. On the whole, I'm happy that I adopted the technique and have been keeping it up in the other book(s).
Robin S. said...I like the chapter begining quotes as centering the actionm to follow.
Evil Editor said...It was good that the Behemoth wasn't a big dumb guy. Usually giants are idiots.
Rob Rogers said...He started out as a big, dumb guy, actually. But when I went back to revise the book, one of the thing that Wizards and I both felt was that I needed to flesh out the villains in some of the same ways I'd done with the heroes. When I decided to give the Cirque a shared origin that tied to the city, I had to decide which character to use as the POV character, and forced myself to choose the Behemoth because he was the team member I knew and liked the least. It made me get into his head and understand him better, and he turned into one of my favorites.
stacy said...Do you have any other favorite characters in Devil's Cape?
Rob Rogers said...I could sit here and list a ton of them, really. I developed a lot of affection for most of the POV characters in particular. I definitely liked all three protagonists, Pericles, Julian, Sam Small, Salazar, Jazz. I've got a Jazz short story in the works, too.
sylvia said...Jazz was great, that was definitely a character that I wished we knew more about.
Rob Rogers said...Thank you. She's another character who kind of evolved as I wrote about her. I had an interesting story arc for her for the sequel. I hope I get a chance to finish that someday.
sylvia said...It sounds like you got excellent support from Wizards! It is great to hear how involved they were and that they (or at least someone) was really in love with your novel and dedicated to helping it shine.
Rob Rogers said...Working with Wizards, and in particular my editor Mark Sehestedt and with Phil Athans, was great. I regret that Wizards decided to drop the line and that the publicity ran out very quickly after the book was published. But I likely never would have even finished a book without that encouragement and support from Wizards, and I'd work with them again in a heartbeat.
Robin S. said...I was thinking maybe about having a couple of pirates (or perhaps not pirates as much as other outside-the-law pirate-hangers-on) who figured out how to work the superhero system in your novel, in some form or fashion; ancestors of one or more of the Devil's Cape novel characters. Just sounded kind of cool, given the history of the area.
Rob Rogers said...That sounds fun. I liked playing around with that sense of history and the events of the past having an impact on the future.
stacy said...Sorry to have to bail, Great book, Rob! I'll be keeping an eye out for your next novel!
Evil Editor said...Everyone needs a name, but it still would feel weird to introduce yourself as Argonaut or The Behemoth or Bedlam. How do superheroes keep a straight face? Hi, I'm Evil Editor.
Robin S. said...Ha! Damn, EE, I would really love to see you introduce yourself that way sometime!
Rob Rogers said...Yeah, I hear you. And you'll notice that for the most part I refer to characters by their real names. It's kind of a convention of the superhero genre, and does kind of set these people apart as some type of icons, even when they're really pretty human below the surface.
sylvia said...I just went to update LibraryThing with my November books and noticed that Devil's Cape was in the Early Reviewer's System. Hurray! (and how did I miss my chance to get a free copy). Was that Wizard's doing or your own?
Rob Rogers said...I'm not sure I know what that is. Wizards did publish an ARC of the book and gave it a decent distribution. I was asked for suggestions of anyplace to send it for reviews, pull quotes, etc., and Wizards sent it out there (that's how I got a quote from Greg Rucka, who I was and am a huge fan of), as well as to a number of other places.
Blogger sylvia said...That would have been part of the distribution then. It's neat because it's a system that I'm in (you get ARCs of new books and agree to write at least a 50-word review of the book. Most people write much more and then cross post it to sites like Amazon)
Robin S. said...I apologize that I have to take off now- family commitments. It was great visting with you, Rob. I'm so glad you could come and hangout. Congrats on your novel. It's a good one. Bye you all, and happy Sunday!
sylvia said...You can see your reviews here: Devil's Cape by Rob Rogers | LibraryThing
Rob Rogers said...Thanks. I joined LibraryThing at one point and ultimately moved over to Goodreads. I've seen some of those reviews, but not all of them, so that will give me something to read today.... That's how I got initial word of mouth. And Wizard did fly all the Discoveries writers to Book Expo America, where we autographed books and gave tons of them away to booksellers and reviewers and such. That was a terrific experience and great exposure.
Evil Editor said...We're dwindling. And you've been more than generous with your time Rob. Let's call it a chat.
sylvia said...This has been really interesting - thank you!
Evil Editor said...Thanks for coming everyone. And Thanks for joining us Rob.
Rob Rogers said...Thanks very much, all. You've been very kind.
sylvia said...Hurry up and finish the next novel for us :)
_*Rachel*_ said...I'm putting this on my need-to-read list.
