[alison]

Hi Tari - do you mean that your books go on forever? If so, I have a friend like you: he calls his fantasy novel "Endless". For almost as long as I've known him, he's been on the penultimate chapter, because he finishes it, and then there's another bit to write, and so it goes. But he swears he is finishing it this year, and I believe him. Or is it that you just get stuck? If so, have you tried planning it out a little?

[Rocket Sheep]

Alison, if someone came into a copy, rather suddenly, of The Riddle, the second book of Pellinor, can they just read that and have a very merry time without reading The Gift?

What if it was a review copy and they absolutely had to read it in three weeks?

[alison]

Hi Rocket - I hope that each book can stand alone. My ambition is to make four books that are, at once, parts of a continuous story that's 1200 pages long, but at the same time are satisfying stories in themselves. That's probably impossible, but I did as much as I could to try to ensure that someone who picks up The Riddle without having read The Gift isn't lost, without weighing everything down with too much boring exposition, and that the story has a climax &c on its own terms, and not just in the larger architecture of the series (though hopefully leaving people dying to know what happens next, of course :) ). I often read things backwards, so I assume that other people might, too...! I actually haven't heard from anyone who's read The Riddle and not The Gift, so I can't say for sure whether it works.

[Rocket Sheep]

You may be about to find out. I don't normally review fantasy but someone was desperate and it was YA so I figured I could do it. Sally Murphy and Lucy Sussex review a book a week and write their own stuff flat out as well... I don't know how they do it.

I like the layout of The Riddle and the use of grey pages for section breaks. Who did your maps? Very detailed. Why did you dedicate it to your daughter?

[alison]

Thanks, Rocket! Yes, I like the page designs very much myself. I'll be most interested what you think - I hope it works for you... But rest assured: I don't take reviews personally, even if they're negative. They're worth nothing if they're not honest. (If you don't like it, I won't get out my shears, I promise.)

Maps - they're a bit of an obsession. I don't know who did these maps, but they're taken from my own, rather less elegantly designed ones. When I write, I use a detailed map so I don't get lost (I can't seem to write these books without it), but when I gave it to Penguin for The Gift, they actually lost it!!! AAARGGH! Luckily, a year later when I really needed it for The Riddle, the map turned up again, and I very quickly scanned it so it couldn't be lost again. The map in Oz edition of The Gift is not so good, done at the last minute off a bad photocopy. The designer for the UK edition, a lovely guy called Patrick Insole, is deeply into maps, and he commissioned a beautiful one for that book. So Penguin did a better job on this one.

Each of the books is for one of my children, because this is the stuff they like. Josh got the first one, because he basically reminded me how much I like fantasy when he started reading it. That leaves open who book 4 is for...I'm not having any more kids!

[Radthorne]

Each of the books is for one of my children, because this is the stuff they like. Josh got the first one, because he basically reminded me how much I like fantasy when he started reading it. That leaves open who book 4 is for...I'm not having any more kids!
My first one was for my wife, the second for my mom, and the third will be for my son. So my book 4 is up for grabs too!

[Tari]

hey, how is everyone? i've only just got back home. i've been down south away from everyone for five days so i'm a little behind in conversation but i'm trying catch up as fast as i can. i began writing a fairytale for children whilst i was away and i am hoping that this one will be finished by the end of term1. i started the sketches for it on the way home. the only piece of writing iever finished was for my little cousin. it was a series of stories about seven girls and this myasterious worlds aboard an elevator. she was 5 when i gave it to her and then their house burnt down and they went up in flame and i lost them all forever so now i'm more careful and store my stories but this one will be the first one i'll finish in over four years. Alison i dont mean they go on forever i mean they come to a grounding hault so i re read them and delete half the stuff thats there because i think it's unecessary and then it just sits there. the characters are almost dead . . . . do you get what i mean? it's like they just fade into nothingness. i met Glynn Parry last year at a lecture and i remember him saying that the only thing that makes a story exist is your characters they drive the story forward and give it purpose but mine dont and they end up fading away. i dont now if this is making any sense but to me it is.

[alison]

Hi Tari - I do know what you mean. Glynn is quite right, I think (but he would be, wouldn't he?): certainly for me, the driving impulse behind my stories is my characters. And so many writers speak about how characters will take on a life of their own, and start doing and saying things that you hadn't planned - mine certainly do! But I think this is a good sign, that the writing is alive.

I really don't know how to advise you how to make up characters. (Others here might have a few ideas). For me, I suspect it begins with what they say: dialogue is crucial to making a character real. Once they start talking in a way that's individual to them, and you start to know a few things about them - small things, like habits, gestures, whether they have a bad temper or like mushrooms - they begin to come alive. Remember that life is very rich and interesting, and there are infinite things to notice, and they can all go into your writing. Real people often contradict themselves, and if they were nice all the way through they would be pretty boring.

I suppose the other thing is that characters always have a little bit of the author in them, and what drives a character is some aspect of the writer. Even (or even especially) the bad guys. My characters are all based on aspects of people I know, and also those I don't - mixtures of characters I've imagined or read about - but underneath there will always be something that's just me, and maybe that's what makes me interested in the book, examining some aspect about myself (this sounds horribly egocentric, but it needn't, ahem, be a good aspect). I guess this makes writing rather self-revealing, but only someone who knows me well would know what bits of a character might be me. :) Books, even fantasy books, are quite personal really. In the end, that's something that shouldn't really show in the finished book; but it does, I think, inform the passion with which a book is written.

[Gary Wassner]

We do think very much alike Alison. Each character definitely has a little bit of the author in it. Even the totally dark ones. How could they not? I was just interviewed by a very bright individual at the Other Fantasy section of WOTmania.com and I answered his question relating to this issue in such a similar manner as you did here. Is it just us, Alison (and Scott Bakker too, I know) and is it unique to Fantasy, where our characters can do and be anything, that we invest so much of our souls in our books?

[Tari]

hey Alison. thanx for the advice. i do agree that some of me ends up in my characters but i think im yet to communicate with a character i ennjoy. i know that most of the time i get caught liking my evil guys better and therefor instead of giving the hero/heroine more dimension i forcus more on the bad guys and they end up dominating the story which can be good and can be bad. i'm dropping myscreenplay and short story at the moment and spending a few days with the crew (Emma and Natha) to relax and work on the story we began together last time we hooked up. unfortunately we spend most of the time debating on small tiny aspects of the storyline or a character which can be interesting as well. so i will speak to you guys in a couple of days.
~ciao ciao