The Neopian Times Series Spotlight — Quarry Life

     Last time we were joined by eracina, an up-and-coming NT writer with her first-ever series, The Music Box. Today we will be hearing from a Neopian Times veteran— blueys45, the author of the eight-year-running Infinity saga, about the continuity’s latest instalment Quarry Life .

      It’s an honour to have you here with us today, Bluey! First things first, would you mind telling the readers a bit about your current story?

     So, Quarry Life takes place over a century-and-a-half in the past, in the Obsidian Quarry in Moltara. (Which in this story is its own cave separate from Moltara City) Back then, the miners working there were treated horribly and lived in poor conditions, all due to the cruel owner of the city's mining company. The story centers around two roommates that both work in the mines, and how they approach their situation. Monazite is hopeful and believes that the day will come when she can stop being a miner and instead chase her dreams. Agate, on the other hand, has a more realistic outlook on things, and thus she's become resigned to their status.

     This is the latest entry in a much bigger continuity, which began with the series Infinity, and consists of many other series and short stories. However, Quarry Life is a self-contained series, so no prior knowledge of the other instalments is necessary to enjoy this one. (But for those that have read other stories in the saga, there are some call-backs to the rest of the continuity, and a few familiar characters show up as well)

      What inspired you to write Quarry Life?

     Quarry Life was written specifically for the Neopian Literature collaboration. I knew that I wanted to use a book from the "Moltaran Books" category for my entry. But when looking through my options, I noticed that the majority of those books were either non-fiction (Which is definitely not my comfort zone) or involved the Moltaran Caves. (Which is a setting I can't really go into detail about at the current point in the saga without spoiling certain things too early) I ultimately chose Quarry Life because I got the idea of telling the story behind how that book got its information on the working conditions of Obsidian Quarry, which allowed me to dance around the aforementioned issue I had with non-fiction.

     Aside from that, Obsidian Quarry is a setting that I've used before in the saga, but I hadn't touched much upon what life was like for the average miner aside from a few paragraphs here and there. So I figured that this series would be a good opportunity to explore that subject in much closer detail.

      How many parts is Quarry Life?

     Eight parts! I originally intended for it to be a three to five-part series, but the length ended up getting away from me during the writing process...

      And how long would you say it took you to write it?

     I started it in late April, but I found myself dragging my feet on making progress for a while. It got to the point where I seriously began to wonder if I would be able to finish it before the collaboration's deadline. However, near the end of May I was without my own computer for about two weeks, so I decided to continue where I left off (About halfway through Part Four) with pencil and paper. Miraculously, I actually managed to finish the story in those two weeks, and it was just a matter of typing it all onto my computer when I got it back.

     Without a doubt, that is the fastest I've ever been able to write a series of such a length. My writing process is typically much, much slower. (The Sisters of Pillar Grove took me over five years to finish!)

      Without giving us any spoilers, was there any part of the writing process that you particularly enjoyed?

     In general, I love world-building. Moltara is a very fun setting to write about, even if it can be challenging at times. Since most Neopets living there may go their entire lives without seeing a single ray of sunlight, I have to really think about how a civilization could possibly work in such a place. I enjoy coming up with ideas on what life is like underground, as well as workarounds and substitutes for things that we surface-dwelling folk take for granted. (For example, one small detail is that I made sure that things in Moltara are written on parchment, and not paper. You can't exactly have paper if trees aren't readily available!)

     For Quarry Life, I decided to do most of the world-building through how the characters react to the pressures put upon them by the management of the mining company. That also ties into character development, which is another aspect of writing that I particularly enjoy.

      Was there anything you found particularly challenging?

     The biggest thing I struggle with when writing a new instalment of a saga that leans so heavily on continuity as Infinity does is keeping things accessible for new readers. On one hand, I don't want people to feel like they're obligated to read six series and four short stories just to understand what's going on in the most recent story. But in the past, I've been so afraid of scaring new readers off that I felt like I needed to write these huge recaps, which just bogged down the narrative. I've been trying to improve my writing in that regard and keep such recaps brief and scarce.

     With Quarry Life specifically, I tried especially hard to keep recaps to a minimum, since it mostly concerns entirely new characters. But it was inevitable that established characters, as well as past and future events would have to be brought up, so it was a bit difficult to strike that balance between providing enough information and keeping the pacing under control.

      Would you say Quarry Life could be classified as a specific genre? If so, which genre?

     The land of Moltara is pretty obviously based on the steam-punk sub-genre of science-fiction, but since the Infinity saga takes place before steam-power became commonplace, it has more of "clock-punk" setting. Infinity in general is more or less a mix of that along with a dash of action, drama, and fantasy. Quarry Life, however, I would probably put more in the "drama" category than any of the others; there's very little action and the supernatural elements only come up briefly, such as when Flicker's curse is discussed.

      Do you have a favourite character in your story? Or is there a character in Quarry Life that you especially identify with?

     As much as I know I should be talking about the characters that made their debut in Quarry Life (Monazite, Agate, and Cinnabar), I'm still going to have to say that I always enjoy writing about Flicker. Particularly in this story, it was fun to write his scenes from the viewpoint of someone that doesn't know him well, and by seeing his naive and kind personality realize that he's nowhere near as scary as he first appeared.

     He's the overall main character of the saga, so it's not as if I've never given him any character development. However, before Quarry Life, I've written about Flicker as a baby, child, and adult, but never as a teenager. And I've been wanting to write about what he was like as a teen for a very long time, but I had never been able to come up with a good idea for a story set in that time up until now. So I'm glad that I was finally able to fill in that gap.

     Unfortunately for Flicker, Quarry Life happens during the low point in his life. But I did still want to show that even at the time when he had almost no control over his life and was conditioned to believe that he never would, he still tried to rebel in what little ways that he was able to.

      If you were to describe your story using only a handful of adjectives, what would those adjectives be?

     Hmm, I suppose "hopeful" and "cynical"? That may be contradictory at first glance, but how Monazite and Agate utilize those respective aspects of their personalities to respond to the problems thrown their way, and how they come into conflict because of it, does drive much of their character development.

      Without giving us any spoilers, what would you like readers to come away with upon finishing your story?

     Unfortunately, I'm not entirely sure how to answer this without spoilers. I feel like I was a bit unsubtle with the ultimate idea I was trying to get across, so I imagine it'll become clear in the last few parts.

      Bonus question! You've been writing for the NT since issue 234! What has been your motivation to keep writing over the years?

     In all honesty, motivation is something that doesn't come easy for me. I was first published in the Neopian Times about fourteen years ago, but I've hardly been active for that entire length of time. When I have the proper drive, I can write a lot in a short amount of time. But I also get burned out very easily, or run into blocks along the way that can bring all of my progress to a screeching halt. And that often leads into stories going unfinished for months, or even years, and that's why there's a lot of gaps between the publishing dates of one story and the next.

     So I guess a better way for me to look at this question is "What keeps bringing me back to the Neopian Times?" I suppose it's just that I've grown so attached to the setting and characters that I've crafted, and that I want to continue to write about them until the story reaches its natural conclusion. I've been writing this saga off-and-on for over eight years, and I'm far too stubborn to quit now in the face of all that time and effort that I've spent.

     Thus ends our interview with blueys45, a truly dedicated NT author and an inspiration to us all. At the time of writing, Quarry Life is in its fifth week of publication with four more chapters still to be released. If you haven’t already, I strongly recommend you check out Quarry Life or any of its Infinity predecessors!

     Thank you so much, Bluey, for agreeing to this interview! And thank you Reader, for tuning into another edition of the Neopian Times Series Spotlight!

      Would you like your series featured in the NT Series Spotlight? Do you have a favourite series you would like to see featured? Send me a Neomail at the account the__reporter!