China Mieville read from The City & The City at the Harvard Book Store last night. He was eloquent, impressive, and remarkably personable — one of the most social creative professionals I’ve had the pleasure of meeting.

A couple of his points struck me as particularly meaningful: first, he cares a lot for the worlds and the people he creates. Someone in the Q&A asked him whether he would want to live in the worlds he wrote about, and his answer was a straight ‘yes’: “When Perdido Street Station came out, all the reviewers were saying things like, ‘unrelentingly dark,’ and ‘bleak fog-drenched dystopia,’ and I thought to myself, ‘Really? I thought it was rather cool.’ Also identified himself as the kid who always hoped he would jump through the one-time-only magical portal that opened in his closet, but was always a bit afraid that he wouldn’t if the chance came around; I was that kid too, and still am.

I asked him, in a very unformed way, how he managed to get books like King Rat, Perdido St. Station, etc. published despite their not fitting into any easy categories. His response: while taxonomy is fun, it’s important not to let it get in the way of your storytelling. Make a good book, then don’t worry about how to pigeonhole it; rather just tell the story. That’s the way to get people to read it.

Good advice; I’ll take it to heart when I come to my next round of queries.