The Part-Time Sorceress
An interview with Shelly Mazzanoble, Author and Gamer

Posted February 3rd, 2008

by Gamer-girl

Buy Confessions of a Part-time Sorceress here

Photo courtesy of ShellyMazzanoble.com

Shelly Mazzanoble's short stories and essays have appeared in The Seattle Times, Carve, Whetstone, Skirt! and SomeOtherMagazine.com. Her plays have been produced in Seattle and New York City. With the exception of badminton (for which she won a trophy in 7th grade) D&D is the only game she's ever felt "good" at. She lives in Seattle with various foster dogs and a cat she has joint-custody of.

G-G: So how did you first get involved in RPGs?

Shelly: If you work at Wizards long enough, Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) is going to get you! You spend all this time working next to people who have played the game for 30 years and their passion and that of the fans is contagious. I worked at Wizards for almost 6 years before I played in my first group. I was doing marketing for our TCGs so while I learned how to play those games, I didn’t have any involvement with D&D. Eventually I was moved to the Publishing team (the nice people who bring you D&D) to do the marketing for our children’s book imprint, Mirrorstone. At the same time a new D&D group that included mostly new players was starting up and Teddy, the DM, asked me to join. Without hesitation I said yes. I mean, 2 hours? On a Monday? At work? What’s not to love? After a couple of sessions I was hooked.

G-G: What is your favorite game you've played, and why?

Shelly: No surprise, I’m going to go with D&D on this one! It’s the first RPG I’ve ever played so it will always be significant because of that. It’s also how my beloved Astrid came to be, not to mention Confessions. I keep thinking what if I said no when Teddy asked me to join his new D&D group ... Thank goodness I’m kind of a slacker!

G-G: What game would you recommend to a newcomer?

Shelly: With the right group of people and a creative and patient GM, I think any RPG can be a great experience for a new player. One thing I’ve found about gamers is that they love to talk about games. If you’re genuinely interested in learning, you’ll no doubt be able to find someone willing to teach you.

G-G: You seem to have taken gender and tabletop gaming as a hobby-topic of sorts. Do you consider yourself a feminist? What does that term mean, to you?

Shelly: “Feminist” could be the only term more stigmatized than “gamer!” It’s a strange word indeed. It can elicit fear in men and defensiveness in women. I’ve even heard women vehemently deny being a feminist thinking it was some kind of black mark against them. At its core, feminism is simply the belief women and men should be treated as equals. I can’t imagine a women disputing that, myself included. Whether it is in the workplace, at home, or at the gaming table, we may do things differently but we can certainly do anything. I don’t think you have to bash either sex to be a feminist. I love women and I love men. Mars, Jupiter, whatever. Other than the obvious I don’t think we’re all that different.

G-G: Do you feel some games are, by their very nature, more welcoming to female players than others?

Shelly: I think some gaming groups are more welcoming to female players than others. I’ve heard from groups comprised of only males who are thankful Wizards published this book because they’ve been trying to get the women in their lives interested in playing. I’ve also read on message boards the exact opposite from male-only groups who want to keep it that way.

No one is saying you have to play with women. It’s a book, not affirmative action. Fortunately I think the majority of players are eager to see more women at the table. Their mothers are too! Believe me—I’ve heard from them as well.

G-G: It seems like every clique of roleplayers has their one token girl. I'm one, though once I was one of two! Not counting the roped-in girlfriends... So are you the token woman of your group(s)?

Shelly: This probably has much to do with working at Wizards but my group is split evenly between men and women. We are definitely cliquey though. Once, our old DM, Teddy, thought about splitting up the two groups he DM’d for by experience level. Wow, what a hullabaloo that caused! We refused to be torn apart!. You spend enough time saving each other’s butts you can’t help but become attached.

G-G: Why do you think D&D became so male-dominated in the first place? Or, conversely, what conditions create gamer girls, since we're apparently so unusual?

Shelly: Not to sound all scientific but working in the publishing industry does allow me some insight into market research. Studies have shown fantasy appeals more to boys than to girls. Not to say that girls don’t like fantasy—just that it ranks higher with boys. My job also allows me the pleasure to talk to a lot of librarians and teachers and I’ve heard from many that they use D&D as a teaching tool to get the boys into the library and excited about reading and writing. They’ve got kids who won’t turn in homework assignments and fail spelling tests but can write entire D&D campaigns. That alone is probably a big reason why D&D has attracted so many males. I also think, whether intentionally or not, girls are “guided” away from fantasy and towards something more “wholesome.”

The elusive gamer girls I’ve met are often introduced to the hobby by a male whether it be their fathers, brothers or boyfriends. Even though the book wasn’t written for these women in particular, to them I am grateful because there’s no way it could have been written without them.

G-G: Do you think this will always be the case, or will there someday be just as many women as men in our little niche? Why or why not?

Shelly: I think women are taking definite strides to become more recognized in this industry. Really the best thing that can happen for a game like D&D is that new players are always coming to the table — men or women. That’s how the game evolves. Thanks in part to television shows like Heroes, books like Harry Potter and Eragon and blockbuster movies with eye candy elves like the Lord of the Rings trilogy, fantasy is becoming more mainstream. I’ve talked to plenty of women who love all of the above mentioned and still tell me they think they wouldn’t like D&D because it’s “fantasy.” Harry Potter was a wizard! What’s more fanciful than that?

Anyway, this is certainly the intention with Confessions and the spin-off message board forum Astrid’s Parlor and I think it’s a great sign that Wizards is recognizing the need to speak to women and give everyone a place to talk about issues that affect, both positively and negatively, women in gaming. There are also lots of great online communities (this being one of them) dedicated to women and gaming. The more visible women are in the gaming community, the more likely other women will feel empowered to walk into their local game store and demand a demo.

G-G: You recently published a book, Confessions of a Part-Time Sorceress. How did that project come about?

Shelly: Confessions came about rather innocently. After I started playing D&D and (much to my surprise) realizing how much I was enjoying it, I wrote an essay for an editor I had worked with at The Seattle Times about my secret life as an uber-girly girl designer sword toting dragon slayer. Although she liked it, she didn’t get it. She asked if I could explain D&D in under 700 words. I couldn’t. But I could in 53,659 words.

I showed the rejected essay to some people at Wizards who unbeknownst to me were already thinking about how to bring more women into the category. I wrote up a proposal for a “how-to” book, part memoir, part beginner guide, written in a (hopefully) humorous, light-hearted manner. Thankfully the Wizards-that-be liked the idea and set me to work. 16 months later Confessions was sitting on shelves.

G-G: What is the book about, at its heart?

Shelly: I hope what comes through is my genuine adoration for D&D and the people who play it. Ten years ago I didn’t know there was such a thing as a 20-sided die. Now they’re falling out of my make-up bag.

I don’t pretend to have discovered this game that men and women have been playing for decades but I did want to introduce it to a whole new segment of women who think it’s not for them. So much of what D&D and RPGs in general involve is what many women are already attracted to—socializing, being with friends, protecting each other, telling stories. If you have ever watched little girls at play you’ll see something else that comes naturally to us—roleplaying. Playing house, Barbie, tea parties with our stuffed animals. It’s always “you pretend you’re this and I’ll pretend to be that.” Substitute a princess for paladin and she’s ready for D&D.

G-G: Who was your target audience? How was that reflected in the writing of it?

Shelly: The goal was to appeal to all women new to RPGs, which is probably evident from the pink and white cover. From anyone who has ever expressed an interest in roleplaying games to the mother of a 12 year-old son who is wondering what he and his friends are doing hunched over the dining room table every week, to the avid video game playing girl. Yeah it’s pretty “girlified” and fluffy and plays heavily on the pop culture references and my shoe and handbag fetishes but I hope readers will take that in the spirit it’s intended. I am a “girly-girl” so I couldn’t help that part of me coming through. D&D is rules overload and for a complete beginner can be one of the biggest roadblocks to playing. I thought it would be more entertaining to explain things like character alignment by tying each with a celebrity or warming someone up to the idea of personifying a gnome by telling them where gnomes most likely vacation.

You’re probably not going to finish the book and go write your first adventure but you will hopefully have a good idea of the basics and be excited about trying it out.

G-G: What were your goals in writing it? How well do you feel you achieved those goals?

Shelly: In addition to introducing women to Dungeons and Dragons and encouraging them to give the old d20 a roll, I wanted to lift some of the stereotypes that surround RPGs and the people who play them. I became friends with D&D players long before I played it myself and I assure you they’re no different than the rest of us! Okay maybe they are a tad smarter and more creative, even a bit more articulate but then again these are my friends. I’m biased! What I was trying to show is you don’t have to be a certain kind of anyone to enjoy a game like D&D. Even a hyper girly-girl who can’t go 3 weeks without an eyebrow waxing and has an embarrassing array of trashy TV stashed on her DVR’s hard drive can enjoy pounding the stuffing out of bugbears on a regular basis.

I’ve gotten some great responses from women who tell me they didn’t “get” D&D until they read Confessions or had no interest in learning until their significant other brought home the book. Some are even painting their own miniatures now! I’ve also received some nice emails from guys thanking me because the book succeeded in getting the women in their life interested at least rolling up a character. What she does with it afterwards is up to her.

I think it’s very healthy for couples to play D&D together. You can vent a lot of frustration with your imaginary bastard sword.

G-G: Have you ever thought about writing your own set of RPG rules? If so, what sort of setting and/or mechanics would you choose?

Shelly: Intriguing, but I think I’m going to leave that to the professionals for a while longer. If I were to write something though I’d probably opt for something set in the modern day and we’d go around rescuing lots of animals. Not a day goes by something happens where I wish I were a real life wizard.

G-G: What's your goal right now, as a writer?

Shelly: Well you’ve heard that old adage; don’t quit your day job? It is good advice, especially if you like your job, but the long-term goal is to be able to support myself by writing. Note: I’m emphasizing the long in long-term.

Short-term I’m hoping to finish some projects that got back-burnered in the last year. A short –story collection has been quietly suffering from neglect on my hard drive, a children’s book needs a big rewrite, and I want to start working on a non-fiction book my good friend, co-worker, and fellow writer, Nina Hess helped come up with. I owe her big time!

G-G: Any advice to other aspiring writers?

Shelly: First, find other writers and just be with them. You don’t need to write with them or critique each other’s work or even talk about writing. Writers are naturally good people and fun to be around. You can’t help but be inspired and learn from them. Actually this is good advice for anyone—just find a writer and be his or her friend.

Next, the best advice I ever got was from a college writing professor. “Just write.” I know, easier said than done but it’s the most important thing you can do if you want to be a writer, right? Do it even if you have to force yourself to. Get up early, drink a pot of coffee, and write something. Even if it’s a paragraph or the same sentence over and over again or a writing prompt you found in a book or pretty much the worst piece of drivel you’ve ever read, congratulate yourself and do it again the next day. By the way, your writing is never as bad as you think it is. That’s also good advice—turn off the internal editor when you’re writing. Writing is for writing. Editing comes later. The editor will get their turn but they have to play nice with the writer.

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