[Rob B]

As a Fantasy writer, competing for not just the attention of readers who have enjoyed the genre for some time and readers who are making initial forays into the genre, how does "fighting" for the attention of people looking to be entertained through story, when society today does not generally read as much as we here would like them to. For example, and this may be considered a second question...with the Fantasy genre taking a strong hold in video gaming, films, and increasingly, of late, graphic novels, do you see these other media as:
**Competition?
**Potential arenas for your work to be translated into?
**Different media in which your stories can be told?

Or is this getting ahead of the bare essentials of "writing good stories?"

I ask because encouraging people, in general, but specifically younger than myself, or close to my age (in-laws, cousins, friends) to read is not always a successfull endeavor when the things I mention above [video gaming, films, and graphic novels] surround us more prevalently than books. (Don't get me wrong, I enjoy all three, as well)

and btw, thanks very much for participating!

[MWStover]

Hey, S&B --

Yes, I have been somewhat ill for quite some time; it's a chronic condition, currently (fingers crossed) under control with meds and lifestyle. And yes, it found its way into my work. A great deal of BLADE OF TYSHALLE is about finding an answer to helplessness -- I have no doubt that theme came through so strongly because I was desperately ill the whole time I was writing it, and no one could tell me what was wrong with me (which is not too surprising, since my condition was first described in medical literature in adult males in 1999 . . .).

The point is, really, that everything in my life ends up in my work. Fantasy is a vehicle for truth; everything in fantasy -- good fantasy, anyway -- is a metaphor for truths people have to deal with in our world every day. So I use everything I know -- everything I've learned, everything I've experienced -- to tell as much metaphorical truth as I can.

Writing's too hard as it is. I sure as hell wouldn't want to try it with half my honesty tied behind my back.

Fitz --

I see other media as potential sources of income, if I can just find people willing to buy my stories and adapt them. It's too much work to try and market them myself.

I don't see them as competition. They all use different parts of the brain. If you read, you'll still read, no matter how much fun HALO 2 is.

You just have to remember that universal literacy was the Holy Grail of the American Century. Readers are leaders, sure -- but most people will always be followers, and that's just the way it is.

[Rob B]

Hey, S&B --

Yes, I have been somewhat ill for quite some time; it's a chronic condition, currently (fingers crossed) under control with meds and lifestyle. And yes, it found its way into my work. A great deal of BLADE OF TYSHALLE is about finding an answer to helplessness -- I have no doubt that theme came through so strongly because I was desperately ill the whole time I was writing it, and no one could tell me what was wrong with me (which is not too surprising, since my condition was first described in medical literature in adult males in 1999 . . .).
I did see this, especially with Hari's condition as it was. Maybe that is why the ending of BoT gave me the biggest grin, of any ending I have ever read. Not that I was grinning at your pain, mind you.


Fitz --

I see other media as potential sources of income, if I can just find people willing to buy my stories and adapt them. It's too much work to try and market them myself.
It seems that, video games especially, have been tapping established and respect FSF writers to pen novels in their universe(s), with Eric Nylund doing HALO stuff and EE Knight doing some TOMB RAIDER stuff.

Aside from Star Wars, which is probably the biggest media property, and the Flash Gordon mess, have any others tapped you to pen something in their "universe?"

[Holbrook]

May I ask has your illness changed your perception of your previous works? Do they now seem naïve in your eyes in some way? Has the black and white become even greyer?

Has it drawn you to only express the helplessness? Or can you now see the simple things you dismissed as mundane as meaningful, more precious? Have these found there way into your work in greater or lesser amounts.

Writers are often drawn to describe the unusual, yet it is, I believe, the mundane background in a work that gives it texture. Do you spurn this and reach even more for the fantastical?

Sorry don’t mean to intrude, but in the last twelve months I have gone from able bodied to handicapped. I have found the roller coaster ride I have been on has affected every part of my life and lead me to re-think a lot of what I have put down on paper during the past six years.

[JRMurdock]

I've got a couple simple questions

1) What was your first 'published' work? (meaning what was the first writing you wre paid for)

2) How long did it take you to get 'published' and how long before your first book deal?

3) How has your perception of writing changed since you first 'put pen to paper'?

And Thanks for answering all of our questions.

J.R.

[MWStover]

May I ask has your illness changed your perception of your previous works? Do they now seem naïve in your eyes in some way? Has the black and white become even greyer?

Has it drawn you to only express the helplessness? Or can you now see the simple things you dismissed as mundane as meaningful, more precious? Have these found there way into your work in greater or lesser amounts.

Writers are often drawn to describe the unusual, yet it is, I believe, the mundane background in a work that gives it texture. Do you spurn this and reach even more for the fantastical?

Sorry don’t mean to intrude, but in the last twelve months I have gone from able bodied to handicapped. I have found the roller coaster ride I have been on has affected every part of my life and lead me to re-think a lot of what I have put down on paper during the past six years.

I'm sorry for your situation. I have a feeling, though, from the tone of your question, that you haven't actually read much of my previous work.

Nothing in my work was ever a question of "black and white." In fact, my first novel, IRON DAWN, was set in 1140 BC for the specific reason that the Manichaean struggle of Good vs. Evil was (basically) invented about six hundred years after that -- in other words, I wanted to write an epic fantasy in which the Grand Conflict of Good and Evil had nothing whatsoever to do with it.

And no, none of my earlier work strikes me as naive, even now; a handicap or an illness is an obstacle -- an additional struggle added to the daily struggle of existence. Since what I try to depict, in my own metaphoric terms, is the struggle of existence, my illness only points up, to my eyes, that I was trying to do the right thing all along.

Fitz --

I've been appproached to write a variety of other media tie-ins, that I've turned down because I don't like the franchises, or the timing was wrong, or the money just wasn't there. I won't get into specifics. Suffice it to say that Star Wars is likely to remain my only tie-in work for some time to come.

maus --

My first published work was IRON DAWN (Penguin/Roc, May 1997), which answers two of your questions. The third is unanswerable, since I started writing as soon as I could read; I can't say what my 'perception of writing' was back then. It was just something I did.

Now it's something I do for money.

[Jacquin]

Ok, I'll bite at that last line.

Do you exclusively make a living from your writing? If so is it a good liviing? If not what else do you do for money?

Also on the same theme, assuming royalties are a big part of your living do you have any plans to get your Caine books more readily available in Europe?

Oh, please feel free to tell me not to be so nosey if you want...

J

[Sammie]

Hi there! First off I just want to say thanks very much for agreeing to take part in this thread - it's much appreciated!

Secondly - I have two questions, I hope that's not too greedy.....

1...
Most people I talk to feel that 'Heroes Die' is a fantasy novel, however I very much percieved it as Science Fiction (which I preferred......to write a good story and make it feasible is always more impressive to me than a good story in a fantasy-setting). However, I was then quite disappointed when I read Blade of Tyshalle to find that it is very much fantasy.....I always find it a bit jolting to find myself reading fantasy when I was expecting science fiction, if that makes sense..... So anyway- I was wondering whether you originally conceived/now see Heroes Die as fantasy, or science fiction?!

2...
I very much enjoyed your StarWars novel, 'Traitor'......(especially your take on the light-dark sides of the force), but I felt that as a novel it also rater emphasised the (generally) pretty poor standard of most of the StarWars novels. Were you at all concerned that writing 'Traitor' would get you 'tarred with the same brush', as it were? (Or am I insulting your supreme self-confidence? ;))

[MWStover]

Ok, I'll bite at that last line.

Do you exclusively make a living from your writing? If so is it a good liviing? If not what else do you do for money?

Also on the same theme, assuming royalties are a big part of your living do you have any plans to get your Caine books more readily available in Europe?

Oh, please feel free to tell me not to be so nosey if you want...

J

Were I a healthy single man, I could live fairly comfortably on what I make -- but comfortably, for me, simply means a warm dry bed, a bathroom, and a kitchen. Material goods mean little to me.

As it is, however, I still -- as I have these twenty-some years -- tend bar. I've found a place where I rarely am required to work more than twenty to twenty-five hours a week, that will still provide full health and prescription drug benefits for my wife and me. That's worth a LOT of money. And it gets me out of the house.

To the best of my knowlege, HEROES DIE is currently available only in France and Russia; however, my agent has a new "Europe guy" to coordinate activities in the EU. I'm hoping when CAINE BLACK KNIFE comes out he may be able to sell all three as a package in some of the other markets over there -- Germany in particular (they tend to pay very well).


Sammie --

HD is indeed SF -- hard SF at that, and was always intended to be. The central conflict is an external problem, set up by a speculative extention of current societal trends, solved by creative application of the central speculative technologies of the novel (the "thoughmitter/simichair" and the "Winston transfer").

BLADE OF TYSHALLE is epic fantasy, and was always intended to be. The central conflict there is internal, a test of character, one might even say mythological (for all four of the protagonists, not to mention several minor characters): they must face their own mortality, pass through it -- in a couple of cases literally -- and either return to life with a deeper understanding and appreciation (as Campbell would put it, at-one-ment) of the truth of themselves, or fade away into darkness . . .

Why is that a problem? When magick works like science, and science works like magick, the only distinction between SF and fantasy is the focus of the story.

As, in my never-humble opinion, the first two volumes of the Acts of Caine rather elegantly show.


As for TRAITOR . . .

It's like this:

I have always maintained that a skilled writer can take ANY tropes, ANY elements, and make something interesting, exciting, possibly even moving and thought-provoking out of them. I'm not trying to show anybody up, you understand. That's not what it's about.

It's about saying to roughly half a million Star Wars fans, "Hey! YOU there! My name is Matthew Woodring Stover! You hear me? MATTHEW! WOODRING! STOVER!"

So when I write Star Wars, I give it everything I have. I'm not worried about being "that Star Wars guy." I'm just hoping that no Harry Potter book is released any time near 02 April 2005, so that CAINE BLACK KNIFE might just get to come out with a line under my name that says "New York Times #1 Bestselling Author."

[Jacquin]

Ok, so if HD was Science Fiction and BoT was Epic Fantasy, what can we expect from Caine Black Knife? I am somewhat worried after you brought up Harry Potter that you'll be branching out into children's literature... ;)

J

(Though Hogwarts would be a lot more entertaining if they all had knives...)