| A Conversation With Raymond E. Feist | ||||||||
| An interview with Wayne MacLaurin | ||||||||
| November 1999 | ||||||||
|
I'll see what I can do.
Mostly because Neal Halford came up with a significant long term plot
issue, why the Tsurani were not very active in Midkemian stories after the
Riftwar. The issue of the Betrayal was so central to that, I felt the need
to comment upon it. My choices were to ignore the games and put them
"outside" of continuity or to integrate them. I chose the latter. There
were problems doing it that way, but I wanted to avoid the Star Trek-ish
fan nonsense of debates over why there were smooth headed and bumpy headed
Klingons. Neal had a couple of good ideas and they fit nicely, so that's the
way I decided to go.
Well, the farther down the timeline I go, the vaguer things become,
but the overall story concepts span about 500 years.
Conclave of Shadows is the next "down the timeline" series. It's set
in the Eastern Kingdoms and will be about half-way between the "high
fantasy" of the Riftwar and the "court intrigue" of the Empire Series in
tone. More I won't say, except to mention the name of the central character
of the first book, a tribal youngster named Talon of the Silver Hawk.
Probably both. One likes to think one grows as a writer as one ages,
else all you get is an "old" young writer. Beyond that is the changing
landscape of the universe and the stories I choose to tell. I've got to keep
fresh and try new things. Also, it's risky to try to duplicate earlier
success. Magician had a certain charm to it, mostly due to my choice of
lead characters, that I would be hard put to duplicate. Knowing this, I
consciously moved in a different direction. And, let's be honest, it's a
trap to fall in love with a set of characters and stay with them too long.
Indirectly. There were two things going on: 1) I had already
established in my own mind where I wanted to go with the next series, and
having James around as a Grey Eminence would have complicated matters. He
had had an amazing life and it was time to bid him good-bye. 2) I also knew
I was doing the Krondor series, so there would be more "Jimmy the
Hand/James" stories despite his demise in the Serpentwar Series. From that
point of view, his death wasn't particularly shocking.
To an extent. There's always going to be comparisons, and that's
unavoidable. There are people out there who feel I hit my peak with
Magician and have gone downhill since. There are people who will tell you
there was something special about that book and everything else has been
anti-climax. In a sense they're right; you can't lose your virginity more
than once (though I did know this one young woman who claimed virginity
several times in her youth, but that's a different story). You can only
have one first born child. You may love all your children deeply and with
passion, but there is something unique about the first born. On the other
hand, because I'm not trying to duplicate anything with my various projects,
they aren't "pale imitations" of earlier works, either. In the end, my
reasons for moving down the timeline and introducing a new cast have more to
do with keeping myself entertained, on the assumption that if I get bored, my
readers are going to be even more bored.
Probably not (I won't say certainly because "never say never"). The
stories underlying games are by design often silly and/or tedious. If you
enjoyed playing a game, it doesn't necessarily mean you'd enjoy reading
about it. For example, a hundred pages of "we kicked down the door, killed
the amorphous gluck, took the treasure, healed our wounds, kicked down
another door, killed another gluck, took another treasure... etc." doesn't
have a lot of appear to me as a writer.
Probably not. I won't say never, because you never know when an idea
might spring to mind, but mostly the epoch I'm writing about begins with the
first Riftwar, and that's where I'm probably going to start "Midkemian
History" at least as I write it.
Not so much, in terms of Roo's being pretty mundane in his concerns and
issues (finance, infidelity, a little murder, and no magic), but similar in
the sense it'll be a different set of problems and circumstances than we've
seen before. Conclave starts off with a pretty straight ahead revenge tale,
and it gets very complicated for the characters involved after a while. One
of the key issues will be personal honour vs. the good of the many, and
unforeseen consequences.
Jigsaw Lady is the working title of a science fiction novel I've had in
my head for darn near 15 years. I think I'll start work on it next
year (in all my spare time) but I'd like to get it finished some day.
I'd like to do another dark fantasy. Heck, I'd like to try a quirky
"Elmore Leonard"-like character-driven "screwed up crime caper" book, or a
compelling police procedure novel. Most writers I think would like to try a
half-dozen things they'll never get around to.
Sometimes, but then I remember selling cars on Reseda Boulevard in
August (think 110 in the shade) and I remember real tedium.
Writing is hard work; it's also the best job I've ever had.
No contest. I enjoyed the "people" aspect of sales, but the haggling,
the rinding, the tedium... thanks, but I'll keep on writing if I'm permitted.
I make time. If I leave my computer, I'm probably not going to get
back for hours. If I take a few minutes to answer questions and go web
surfing, then guilt kicks in and I get back to work. And yakking with my
readership keeps me a bit more in touch. It can get very strange at times,
working in a relative vacuum. While I don't write to prescription, I do
listen to what people are saying to determine if things are going as I
wanted. Often I'll try things that just won't happen the way I'd like them
to, so hearing that they're not working saves me some wear and tear the next
time around.
I'm open to anything that's good. I love Ozzie Shiraz, and admire them
as much for their differences from Château-Neuf-du-Pape, Hermitage, Côte du Rhône
and California Syrrah, as much as I enjoy the similarities. I'm a
huge fan of Cabernet and Bordeaux, and am passionate about Pinot Noir and
Burgundies. I'm just learning about Italians (I've only been doing this for
30 years, after all) and discovering great Italian whites. Spanish wines are
next on my list of things to study. (laughs...)
Wayne MacLaurin is a regular SF Site reviewer. More of his opinions are available on our Book Reviews pages. |
|||||||
 
|
If you find any errors, typos or anything else worth mentioning,
please send it to editor@sfsite.com.
Copyright © 1996-2008 SF Site All Rights Reserved Worldwide